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WORKS BY BISHOP COXE. 



THOUGHTS ON THE SERVICES. 

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APOLLOS ; 

Or, The Way of God. By A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D., Bishop of Western New 
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APOLLOS: 



OB 



THE WAT OF GOD 



A PLEA 



FOR THE RELIGION OF SCRIPTIJRE. 



BY 



A. CLEVELAND COXE. 



** When for the time ye ought to he teachers, ye have need that one teach you again 
which be the first principles of the oracles of God."— iTe&retos, v. 12 






PHILADELPHIA: ^ 
J. B. LIPPIlSrCOTT & CO. 
1873. 



W^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

A. CLEVELAND COXB, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PEEFAOE. 



This book is designed to meet wants whicli are daily 
making themselves felt more and more imperatively. 

We want a clear and candid exhibition of organic 
Christianity, as opposed to the multiplication of sects 
among Christians. 

We want a view of God's way, which shall do full 
justice to the exemplary piety and noble achievements 
of modern " Evangelicals/' while suggesting something 
which they need to know, at least " more perfectly." 

We want something to give a deep reality to the pres- 
ent happy condition of our own communion ; indicating 
the common grounds on which, for all practical purposes, 
the work of Christ may henceforth be presented by us, 
with one heart and one mind. 

We want the simplest Scriptural forms of truths 
which we hold and teach, instead of mere dogmatic 
statements; alike for our own edification and for ap- 
peals to many candid and earnest-minded brethren, who 
are seeking to know " the way of God more perfectly." 

These are some of the wants which the author has 
labored to meet, in a spirit of love to all true Christians. 
He indulges, therefore, a humble trust that the Holy 
Spirit will awaken many to read what he has written, 
and will give them grace to follow, in a practical way, 
what may have been shown, out of Holy Scripture, to be 
the Way of Go A. C. C. 

See House, Buffalo, 1873. 



APOLLOS: 



OR 



THE WAY OF GOD 



I.-POINTS. 

1. THE CAtJSE OF CHRIST. 

EvEET thoughtful Chiistian must bearin to feel that the 
actual condition of things among the followers of Christ 
cannot be reconciled with the Gospel. There is as really 
need for a great awakening as there was in the days of 
WicklifFe. The scandals of our times are different from 
those of the Middle Ages ; but I am forced to believe that 
they are not less hateful to Christ. A fragmentary Chris- 
tianity ; "a house divided against itself"; time, wealth, 
energy, zeal, immense resources and facilities wasted, by 
Christians, in contending one with another ; innumerable 
moral evils bred of this state of things — evils which, because 
of these things, cannot be rebuked, much less corrected : 
this is a reality which everywhere confronts us. And, cor- 
respondingly, what is the case ? Missions paralyzed ; infi- 
delity rampant ; and, after three centuries of boasted " re- 
formation," the greater part of Europe and America still 
enslaved to the superstitions of the feudal era, and all its 
demonstrated imposture. Who can doubt, that, if even those 
Christians of England and America, who profess to believe 
the Articles of the Christian faith as contained in the Apos- 
tles' Creed, could compose their petty differences, and turn 
their warfare against the foes of truth and righteousness 



6 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

as the common enemy, who can doubt that in such case a 
new era would open ? Those who love, supremely, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and who, in Christ, love all that love 
their Master ; those whose hearts warm toward every sin- 
cere believer in the Lamb of God; those who, for the 
restoration of primitive love and unity, would give up 
every merely personal and partisan interest — those are the 
Christians addressed, and let them answer. I ask, how 
long is this confusion to last ? How long, with our Bibles 
open, are we to go on, rebuked by every page of the New 
Testament, and by all the words of Jesus, without even 
a practical desire or prayer for a better state of things ? 

2. THE GEE AT EVIL. 

In America we see the great scandal which disfigured 
the Reformation in extreme development. The dissensions 
of the reformers stopped the progress of reform in the six- 
teenth century ; and here, in America, they are reproduced 
in such countless forms of mingled truth and error, that 
unbelief becomes the rational resource of millions, who 
argue that if truth exists, they have neither the time nor 
the faculties to discover it, amid so many discordant sounds. 
Christians see and feel all this ; but they take no steps to 
correct the gigantic evil. They turn " every one to his 
own way," and are contented to see each his own sect flour- 
ish. Nobody mourns, like a Daniel or a Nehemiah, over the 
broken walls of the temple ; over the dust and ashes of the 
glorious city of God. 

Practical atheism is the condition of millions of our 
people ; they live, absolutely, " without God in the world." 
Let us learn a lesson from poor France ; look at Paris at 
this moment, " without the true God, without a teaching 
priest, and without law." To such a state of things our 
great republic is drifting. " A famine of God's Word " is at 
hand; no famine of the staff of bread is so fatal to a people. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 7 

3. AN APPEAL. 

Wake up, wake up, all believers. Unite for Christ 
against His enemies. Give no more uncertain sounds. Let 
there be a return to the unity of the " apostles' fellowship," 
as well as to the unity of " the apostles' doctrine." If we 
refuse this call of Providence, let us be sure our common 
Lord knows how to chastise us with our own backslidings. 
He will not give us up without medicine. There is much 
precious faith in the land. Perhaps He will cast us all into 
a furnace together ; He will take away all our dross, and 
purify all our tin; He will give us "judges as at the first, 
and counsellors as at the beginning." After that, there will 
be no more these uncertain sounds. There shall be " one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one fold, and one Shepherd." 
Meantime, let us live in the constant effort to restore this 
state of things ; in constant prayer for it ; and in spite of 
the hell without, we shall have heaven within. It shall be 
as when Israel passed through the sea ; the waters raging 
and foaming about them, and threatening to devour them ; 
they marching in one sacramental host, unterrified ; with 
the Ark of the Covenant to lead them, and to preserve 
them; them "and their offspring with them." 

4. RESPONSIBILITY. 

The time must come when the faithful will look back on 
the Christianity of our times with not less astonishment 
than we feel when we reflect on the indifference of mediae- 
val Christians to the enormities of their days. 1 say, with 
the deepest solemnity, that the disorders now tolerated and 
gloried in by Christians called " Evangelical," are not less 
unscriptural and contrary to the doctrine of Christ than 
were the abuses which Erasmus ridiculed, and against which 
Luther sounded his tremendous trumpet. Allow that our 
scandals are less revolting to enlightenment and to good 



8 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

taste, than were those of the past ; allow this, though after 
much thought I am not sure that such is the case ; still, I 
say, let us allow it ; are we, therefore, less guilty before 
God than were the Christians of the age which produced 
Thomas a Kempis, and many other holy examples of true 
faith ? I think not : for those were times which we call 
"the Dark Ages." They had not Bibles in every house, 
and at every inn, and at every post-station. What says 
the Master ? '^ If ye were blind ye should have no sin : 
but now ye say, We see ; therefore your sin remaineth." 

We boast of our light, till the boast becomes nauseous. 
We say, " We see." What, then, is our condition, if we are 
neglecting the first principles of the Gospel, while we judge 
and despise those whose darkness was their misfortune, more 
than it was their fault ? Verily, the men of " the Dark 
Ages" shall rise up in the judgment, and shall condemn 
us. In their blindness they clung to the doctrine of unity, 
as they understood it. We, who read the true principles of 
unity in our Bibles, daily, can only " agree to differ " ; nay, 
we " rejoice in our boastings," while we boast of those 
divisions which the Holy Ghost has condemned as " carnal," 
and which are said to breed " confusion and every evil 
work." 

5. LAODICEA. 

How patient is our blessed Saviour. It is the good men 
who do these evil things ; it is the true lovers of Jesus who 
thus wound Him, and tear His mystical body asunder; 
and who wonder all the while how those Christians of "the 
Dark Ages'" could have been so blind. Alas ! let us not 
"despise others ;" we enlightened Christians of the nine- 
teenth century are but Laodiceans, after all. How thankful 
we are that we are not as were those publicans. 

Yes, I believe the Roman antichrist is very visible in the 
Apocalypse ; I have no doubt where the seven-hilled city 
is to be found on the map; nor have I any doubt that 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 9 

Laodicea may be found in America, and that the third chap- 
ter of the Revelation applies to us as forcibly as anything 
else in that book applies to popery. St. Paul's Epistle to 
the Laodiceans is said to be lost. If so, the Saviour sup- 
plies, in His own blessed words, no doubt, all and more 
than had been said by his apostle. There were blessed 
Christians in Laodicea as there are in America. They had 
a Church in the house of Nymphas ; and Epaphras loved 
them, and prayed for them as well as for the Colossians, 
that they might stand " perfect and complete in all the will 
of God." Their self-sufficiency itself suggests that they 
had great apparent advantages, and were not without 
great apparent piety. I am quite sure they were highly 
"Evangelical," in their own sincere belief; but Jesus 
wrote to their chief pastor, as follows: "Because thou 
sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have 
need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched 
and miserable, and poor and blind, and naked; I counsel 
thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest 
be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, 
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and 
anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest s^e." 



6. THE MESSAGE. 

Some one answers — " Are not these words as applicable 
to you. Churchmen, as to any of us ? " I am deeply sensi- 
ble that they are so. I am ashamed of myself and of my 
people that we are so little rich in the gold " tried in the 
fire" of sacrifice, and of all good and holy works. But 
what does the Master add ? " As many as I love I rebuke 
and chasten." It was the lukewarm Laodiceans whom He 
thus rebuked because He loved them ; it was at their door 
that He stood and knocked. I believe our Master and com- 
mon Redeemer loves all the faithful in America ; but I see 
1^ 



10 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

abundant reason to believe that He rebukes us, all together, 
for our Laodicean Christianity ; and that He cries to us all, 
to "hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.'* 

And there is another message to us, which is specially 
pertinent, in these words: "When, for the time, ye ought 
to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, 
which be the first principles of the oracles of God." How 
can I doubt it, when I see those who ought to be the teachers 
of the nation quite indifferent to those first principles 
as they are connected and classified by St. Paul, in the con- 
text ; nay, often pouring contempt upon some of them as 
of no consequence ; and dismissing all inquiry concerning 
them, with an intimation of their superiority to such mere 
" milk for babe." As if the apostle had not declared that, 
however discreditable the fact, some of the matured Chris- 
tians of his day had need of just such milk, and " not of 
strong meat." 

7. THE RETORT. 

But can it be possible that those eloquent men, and 
" mighty in the Scriptures " to whom the Christianity of the 
nation looks up, and who are so full of zeal and faith, and 
good works ; can it be possible that these need to be in- 
structed in such things ? " And who are you," says one to 
the writer, " that you should venture thus to hint of men 
so ' mighty in the Scriptures ' that they have yet to learn 
^ which be the first principles of the oracles of God ' ? " The 
question is meant to be a withering one; and I feel, in 
all its severity, the implication that one should be very 
sure before he answers with anything but an apology. 
But I am sure ; because it is easy to be sure as to a 
matter of fact. I am sure of the fact that certain Scrip- 
tures are as generally neglected by the popular religion- 
ists of this country as were others by the clergy of the 
Middle Ages. Wonder not at them ; let us wonder rather 
at ourselves. If I do not, before I get through, prove 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 11 

what I aiRrm, then I invoke upon my work the derision of 
mankind. I undertake to "bring forth things new and 
old " ; and to show that they are neglected, and obsti- 
nately ignored by the men of this generation. I have long 
looked at them, and pondered them, and marvelled that no 
good man rises to put them together and to call attention 
to them. At last " the fire kindles, and I speak." Some- 
body must break the stolid apathy of the times on this 
behalf. God grant that mightier voices may follow. I 
speak boldly, however, because I speak for God ; and I 
speak nothing but what I shall draw from His Holy Word. 
May He save me from any mistake and from all confidence, 
save that which His Holy Word inspires. 



8. AQUILA, THE TENT-MAKER. 

" But who are you that you should venture to speak thus 
to men ' mighty in the Scriptures ' ? " That is the inquiry that 
many such men might push against me, and I can only 
answer that, for the time, I am such a one as Aquila, the 
tent-maker, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles. 
He was a very humble Christian ; and he knew a very 
mighty preacher, to whom he ventured to speak, as I have 
done, to some of the eloquent and mighty Scripture preach- 
ers of my country. If I do not prove that there is a " way 
of God " which they need to know " more perfectly," then 
let my presumption be punished as it merits to be. I make 
the venture in all faith ; one must sometimes dare to do 
what he trembles to do, if God has shown him the truth 
of which others stand in need. As He is my witness, I 
speak because I cannot hold my peace while the Christianity 
of my country presents the sickening spectacle which it 
actually does ; and because I love the followers of Christ 
too well not to conjure them, for the common faith and for 
our common Lord, to hearken to His own agonizing prayer 
" that we may all be one.'* 



12 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



9. A TRUCE OF GOD. 

What I propose is not that you should come to me ; not 
that I should go over to you ; but that we should proclaim 
a truce, and all together consent to study and to discuss, 
like Christians, " what are the first principles of the ora- 
cles of God." I am tired of the stale word-fights of 
centuries ; I have no taste for controversies, involving 
old grudges and issues of the dead past. I know noth- 
ing more distasteful than the endless changes rung upon 
the words " bishops, priests, and deacons," and the dis- 
cussions thereon, which have filled so many books. Not 
even the droning, dreary debate about the measure of 
water involved in the word baptize is more unutterably 
sickening to my soul. If the things about which I write 
have not a " length and depth, and breadth and height," 
beyond all this, I shall, indeed, " speak as a fool." It is the 
conviction that something new and fresh may be presented, 
out of God's own Word, that impels me to speak ; for the 
broad subject which I would bring before my brethren is 
that of the family of Christ in its organic forms and fea- 
tures ; and I would view it, freed entirely from all colorings 
of historic and controversial theology, in the simple light 
which is shed upon it by Holy Scripture. 

10. DUALITY. 

A scientific writer lately addressed his audience nearly 
as follows : " Here your tolerance will be needed. I., is 
hardly possible to state any truth, strongly, without appar- 
ent injury to some other truth. In the circumstances the 
proper course appears to be to state both truths strongly^ 
and to allow each its fair share in the formation of the con- 
victions resulting. For truth is often of a dual character^ 
taking the form of a magnet with two poles, and many of 
the difierences which agitate the thinking part of mankind 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 13 

are to be traced to the exclusiveness with which different 
parties affirm, each his own half of the duality, forgetting 
the other half. To hear both sides requires patience. It 
implies a resolution to suppress indignation if the half state- 
ment should clash with our convictions, and not to suffer 
ourselves to be unduly elated if the half-truth should hap- 
pen to confirm them. It implies a determination to wait 
calmly for the statement of the whole matter before we 
pronounce judgment." 

Now I come with half-truths, which are not thought of 
by many of my pious countrymen, and I propose to join 
them to the half-truths which are almost universally 
accepted by them, and which are mistaken for integers. 
I bespeak, then, calmness, patience, and toleration, and I 
think I shall show that the two halves united, present a 
perfection and beauty which proves that they were not 
meant to be put asunder. This whole truth is " the way of 
God," which I would venture to present " more perfectly " 
to many brethren, than it seems thus far to have been con- 
ceived of by them. And I do so, not doubting that in 
turn they have much to impart to me which it will do me 
good to learn of them. Oh ! how many good and true 
men, in our country, are " mighty in the Scriptures," and 
full of generous and noble zeal for Christ, who yet might 
learn, by giving and receiving freely one of another, to 
know more perfectly " the way of God." We need con- 
ference, not controversy, if we would be fitted, by united 
action, to impress deep upon the popular mind and heart 
those convictions by which man's true life is made ; convic- 
tions which our people require more fully and practically 
to know and to feel ; convictions of which no nation has 
greater need than ours, but which are almost entirely un- 
represented in their completeness, to the popular mind and 
conscience in America. 



B 



14 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



11. THE IDEA. 

This is, then, the seminal idea : That there is a way of 
God; not a dozen ways, not five score; but one way of 
God, called, therefore, " the way of God," and that this way 
needs to be known and preached more perfectly, in divers 
respects, by most of the eloquent and mighty men I refer to. 
The devil is very active, and his friends are very numerous, 
and he works them hard. Apollos, in our days, stands in 
his pulpit and is very fervent, but he " beats the air," in 
spite of all his eloquence and might. For, lo! the heathen 
walk on still in darkness ; the foundations of the earth are 
out of course ; the divisions of Christians multiply, and 
God's name continually is blasphemed. Yet Apollos, as 
we see him now, will not admit that anybody can teach him 
" the way of God more perfectly." Apollos, sitting at the 
feet of the tent-makers, is not a vision of the nineteenth 
century. 

But there was such a vision in the first century, and the 
Holy Ghost has put it into the Scriptures for our learning. 
Here it is : 

A certain Jew, named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent 
man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 

This man was instructed in the way of the I^ord : and being fer- 
vent in the spirit, he spake and taught, diligently, the things of the 
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. 

And he began to speak boldly, in the synagogue : whom when 
Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and ex- 
pounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. 

Here we learn, according to the exact words of the 
Greek, that Apollos was a mere " Catechumen in the way 
of the Lord," though he was "mighty in the Scriptures." 
The two things, then, may coexist. Even with the New 
Testament in their hands men may be mighty, merely in 
their partial views of it, through ignorance of some things 
which Aquila might teach. This is a very important truth 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 15 

as bearing on the condition of many " Evangelical Chris- 
tians," in Europe and America. Their knowledge of the 
Scriptures is such as seems to reduce to an absurdity the 
suggestion that there is yet a way of the Lord which they 
very imperfectly comprehend. The very idea is resented : 
yet it may be so. 

12. THE PORTRAIT. 

The more I look at this Scripture portrait of Apollos, 
the more I see in it. It is a sublime example of the spirit 
we all need to learn in these days. John Baptist had 
taught him ; he had mingled in those crowds amid the reeds 
and rushes of the Jordan, and there the new Elijah had 
baptized him with the baptism of repentance, and told him 
to believe on the Lamb of God whose kingdom was at 
hand, and in the Holy Ghost about to be given. How hap- 
pened this Hellenistic youth to be in Jewry just at that 
time ? Doubtless he came up to a Passover, as did Simon 
the Cyrenian, somewhat later. He was probably a descend- 
ant of those Jews whom Philip's son had carried captive 
and planted in Egypt — " A Jew of Alexandria." There 
he had learned the Greek Scriptures ; but he had learned 
how to understand them from one who was the greatest 
born of women, saving always the Blessed Seed ; who was 
" a burning a];id a shining light," though he called himself 
only a voice — " the voice of one crying in the wilderness " 
— the voice of a herald before the king ; the light of the 
Morning Star before the Sun of Righteousness. 

"An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures," and 
" instructed in the way of the Lord," and " teaching dili- 
gently the things of the Lord," and also " speaking boldly 
in the synagogue," and yet, to finish the picture, " sitting 
to learn the way of God more perfectly " from Aquila and 
Priscilla, the tent-makers. 



16 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



13. HUMILITY. 

Now, to see Aquila and Priseilla, the tent-makers, sit- 
ting at the feet of Apollos the Eloquent, is all very beauti- 
ful and natural ; but here we see something more marvel- 
lous. The conditions are just reversed, and here is Apollos 
sitting at the feet of these tent-makers — one of them a 
woman. Strange to say, they have " taken him unto them^'* 
for so it reads. His eloquence and power have not been 
used to draw disciples unto himself. Like the Baptist, he 
was no sectary, though soon after, many wished to be called 
by his name. He preferred to " decrease," and to let the 
increase be Christ's only. 

It seems strange, but these tent-makers are " expound- 
ing unto Mm the way of God " ; and stranger still, " more 
perfectly." 

Here we see the opposite of the sect-spirit — humility in 
all its glory. It is not the eloquent man, nor the philoso- 
pher, nor merely the fervent man and the heroic antagonist 
of unbelief in the synagogues ; it is Apollos, the humble, 
the true follower of the Meek and Lowly ; Apollos, the 
example, because so like the grand Exemplar. He is 
actually becoming a disciple of those tent-makers. Aquila 
may be something aquiline in spirit, as well as in feature, 
but Sister Priseilla is but a Christian woman ; I suppose 
somewhat like unto "Grandmother Lois and Mother 
Eunice," of whom we read elsewhere. These taught only 
child Timothy, but Sister Priseilla is actually teaching all 
about the " more excellent way," to one so truly great as 
this Apollos ; the eloquent, the mighty in the Scriptures. 

14. HOW IT CAME. 

I can account for this sublime humility in two ways. 
In part it was because he was the disciple of John ; of him 
who said, " I must decrease " ; of him who said, " The 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 17 

latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and 
unloose." Apollos knew so much of the New Testament 
at least. The humility of that marvellous John Baptist 
had been imitated by his disciple. And, then, besides, there 
was a second reason for his humility. God's spirit had 
wrought in him more than he knew. Hence, he was prac- 
tically^ and therefore absolutely — not comparatively — just 
this, " mighty in the Scriptures." What a glory for any 
man ! Timothy knew the Holy Scriptures from a child, 
and this was most blessed. The same Scriptures made a 
little child of Apollos. And from this practical knowledge 
came his might ; the power to make others know, and under- 
stand, and love them. The Spirit of Understanding was 
to him also the Spirit of Might. And, then, he knew the 
Scriptures : not Moses, not the Psalms, not the Prophets 
only, but the whole Canon of the Old Testament, in which 
he that is mighty discerns the New. ISTo doubt he saw the 
Gospel in the Law ; and in the Prophets he had discerned 
the one "mighty to save," the suffering High Priest of 
Isaiah's awful portraiture — " the Lamb led to the slaugh- 
ter," and the " Sprinkler of many nations." The two tent- 
makers listened to him in the synagogue — that eloquent 
Apollos. They " heard him," it seems ; and it turns out 
that they heard him not with that man- worship and un- 
faithfulness to truth with which many now hear eloquent 
preachers. They were discriminating, apostolic. Catholic 
Christians. They saw and felt all that he was ; yet, 
strange to say, simple folk, they were consistent Church 
people ; they also felt very deeply something that he was 
not. " Take heed what ye hear," said the Master ; and also, 
"take heed how ye hear." 

15. NOT THE POIXT. 

I am not finding fault with any of our good and great 
men. I am only trying to put my idea before others, which 
is, that the practical men and women who hear preaching, 



18 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

in this age, feel that Christ is not getting all the glory, nor 
yet air the fruits of preaching ; they feel that the eloquence 
and the might of such preachers needs to be made perfect 
in some way. And if they might speak to one and all just 
what is in their mind — ^nay, if they could put to them- 
selves, clearly, what they feel within them, it would begin 
with words like these, learned somewhere from St. Paul : 
" Surely there is a way of God. How comes it ye do not 
all ' speak the same thing,' and ' strive together for the 
faith of the GospeP ? " More or less imperfectly ye teach 
the way of the Lord, while ye fail to rebuke, day and 
night, the crying sin of the times, and to set about learn- 
ing its cure. " Is Christ divided ? " Tent-makers, and all 
common folk, see that popular preaching, as a whole, leads 
to the conclusion that He is divided; "wounded in the 
house of His friends." But then, if one is an Apollos in 
other respects, it is very pleasant, perhaps, to hear men 
say, " I am of Apollos." Poor human nature. 



16. COMING TO THE POINT. 

I propose to examine the story of Apollos, to see if I 
can find out what it was that the mighty and the eloquent 
condescended to learn from the tent-makers : those plain 
people who had one or two ideas beyond what Apollos 
preached, though so much inferior to him, and so much less 
mighty in the Scriptures, in other respects. One wonders 
what they could say. I^othing more is said of their teach- 
ing, as to what and how they taught "more perfectly." 
But, if we read on, we shall perhaps learn what they must 
have said, because we find their instructor — yea, their 
" father in Christ " — coming to Ephesus and finding there 
twelve others, in exactly the same case with Apollos, whom 
he took in hand for a similar purpose, and taught them also 
the way of God more perfectly. 

Here is an instance of that wonderful condensation for 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 19 

which Holy Scripture is so remarkable. The mention of 
what Aquila and Priscilla did introduces a general subject, 
which is immediately unfolded by implication ; for imme- 
diately we are told what St. Paul did in such cases. The 
inference is that Aquila and Priscilla taught what their mas- 
ter taught; but Aquila and Priscilla were but private Chris- 
tians, and could not publicly minister. The whole story 
comes out in what St. Paul did, as well as taught, in such 
a case; therefore the private Christians are not followed 
further, but the whole story is handed over to the inference 
forced upon us by what happened under the ministry of 
St. Paul. We are led to infer that Aquila and Priscilla 
induced ApoUos to practise precisely what St. Paul abso- 
lutely enjoined upon others. We have, in the whole story, 
the law of Christ in such cases, and we have in ApoUos an 
illustrious example of submission to that law. We have 
the general inference, also, that no servant of Christ, how- 
ever eloquent or mighty in the Scriptures, is excusable for 
refusing light upon matters of duty, or justifiable for non- 
compliance, however humbling the process. 

17. REACHING THE POINT. 

The case was. Imperfect Jcnowledge of the way of the 
Lord^ in connection with amazing knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures, great faith and zeal, and fervent piety, all combined 
with extraordinary power in winning others to like precious 
faith. In our times it is not allowed, practically, that such 
examples exist. Men who teach the most opposite things 
are made " Doctors of Divinity," by the same university, 
and yet to none of them is supposed to apply the admoni- 
tion, " When, for the time ye ought to be doctors^ ye have 
need that one should teach you elementary truths of the 
oracles of God." This must be so; for though they all 
preach Christ, they do not all know or teach the same 
" way of God." Some of them would deny that there is 



20 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

any "way of God" beyond that practical piety which 
ApoUos certainly understood before Aquila and Priscilla 
met him. Also, in these days, these two ideas seem not to 
be entertained, nor even admitted, by any of the leaders of 
popular thought : (1) that an imperfect Christianity is the 
common Christianity with which we are brought into con- 
tact ; (2) that we need to know, and may, if we choose, find 
out the way of God more perfectly. A whole Gospel is the 
inheritance of the saints ; but neither saints nor sinners are 
presented with it, anywhere. Christ is divided, in a certain 
sense, and in that sense we are permitted to receive Him 
only in part. If the saints are the worse for this, no mar- 
vel that so many sinners utterly refuse Christ. They are 
waiting to see " the one Lord, the one faith, the one bap- 
tism." Till believers are all one, the world will not be 
converted ; the world will not " believe that the Father 
sent the Son." 

18. A POINT BESIDES. 

Apollos, then, teaches us the grand lesson for the times. 
Let those who know Christ and the Scriptures, who are 
mighty and eloquent, condescend, as He did, to the intima- 
tion that perhaps they may know the way of God but im- 
perfectly. Let them humble themselves to receive this 
intimation from any one who can distinctly, out of the 
Scriptures, set forth neglected and imperfectly accepted 
truth. I am going to begin with Scripture, to continue 
with Scripture, to end with Scripture — with the Scripture 
that never ends, the everlasting Gospel. Only, seeing I 
live in times that are intolerant of close, didactic argument, 
I propose not to sermonize, but to indulge in table-talk. 
Perhaps I may get the ear of many, by a conversational 
tone and argument, who would not let me preach to them. 
I recognize my times. It is the age of journalism, and he 
that cannot condescend to write, and to write what people 
may read easily, may rival Demosthenes, perhaps, in his 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 21 

periods, but he must consent to declaim, like him, to the 
wild waves of the sea ; or, more practically, to empty pews 
and benches. The grave old Fathers did not all die of 
dignity ; even in the times of the Arians some of them 
could argue merrily. I, therefore, am content to weave 
Cilician hair-cloth for the time, and to talk like Aquila, the 
tent-maker. 

I trust some gloriously-gifted ApoUos will condescend 
to learn from me one or two ideas, and will be favored of 
God to take them up and urge them forward in the minds 
and hearts of this generation. Christians, now-a-days, all 
claim to be Bible-Christians ; and I am very glad of it. 
To the Bible only do I now refer them. " Dost thou ap- 
peal unto Scripture^ unto Scripture shalt thou go." 



II -ELEMENTS. . 



POSITION DEFINED. 



Before I take another step, let me define my position. 
For the purposes of this reviewal of sundry neglected 
Scriptures, I wish to be understood as occupying abso- 
lutely the position of a Primitive Christian. For the time, 
I am not an Anglican, but am supposed to allow that the 
Anglican Church, and the Churches in her Communion, 
may be very faulty, very imperfect, very lukewarm, very 
much in need of reformation and revival. I do not wish 
to conceal the fact that I, myself, belong to that Com- 
munion, but I must not be regarded as designing to present 
it as a model for all Christians to follow. For my present 
purposes, I may admit much that her enemies might say 
against our Church. I cheerfully admit the precious faith 
of other Communions, and the noble examples they set us 
of fruitfulness in good works. I disclaim the Laodicean 
self-complacency which Christ hates ; I am ready to gather 
new ideas, if I meet them anywhere in my inquiries. I 
only assert this as a fact, viz., that as a Primitive Christian, 
that is a Scriptural Christian, and that is a Catholic Chris- 
tian, I can adhere to the Communion in which I am placed, 
with a good conscience. If, in my inquiries, I come to any 
Scriptural principle which is inconsistent with my practical 
position, I will either set myself to reform it, or I will put 
myself where I can serve Christ better. That is to say, ( 1 ) 
if I meet with Scripture principles that are organic^ and 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 23 

which conflict with my position in this Communion, I will 
go elsewhere, provided I can find a Communion more en- 
tirely Scriptural ; or if (2) I meet with merely functional 
difficulties, those I will strive to reform, in so far as my vo- 
cation and ministry permit. This is what I consider the 
duty of all Christians in the present condition of Christen- 
dom. For, if we would begin by admitting that there is a 
" way of God," and would all agree to labor to bring up 
ourselves, or our divers Communions, or both, to this one 
standard, then, sooner or later, the Holy Spirit working 
with us, we should all find ourselves approaching some 
common standard ; and, meanwhile, though we may never 
see primitive Christianity restored, we should ourselves be 
imbued with its spirit, and satisfied with the blessed re- 
wards of a peace-making heart and life. In return, then, 
for what I promise to do, on this principle, I desire to elicit 
from others equivalent propositions. And, as I proceed, I 
shall be glad to receive from any brother ApoUos such Scrip- 
tural light as I am trying, in the spirit of Aquila, to -affi^rd 
to others. 

2. A HALF TRUTH. 

The question now presents itself. What was there that 
ApoUos required to be taught ? He was a believer, a peni- 
tent, a converted sinner, — a saint in fact, in faith a strong 
man, a great runner, a great wrestler, and " mighty in the 
Scriptures." I am quite sure nine tenths of American Chris- 
tians, perhaps of English Christians, certainly of German 
and Swiss Evangelicals, would ask, What more do you 
want ? " His heart is all right," they would answer ; " the 
rest is of no consequence whatever." Any religionist of 
our days, no matter how utterly erroneous his system of 
belief — an unbaptized Quaker, a creedless Unitarian — if he 
can furnish half the evidence of being right, in the sight 
of God, which is recorded concerning this disciple of the 



24 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

Baptist — yes, and even though it is certain he cannot — is left 
there where he is, by universal consent. 

" Knowing only the baptism of John," says the Scripture. 
But, this record is itself a superfluity, if popular views be 
the true Gospel. Who cares about his baptism ? That is im- 
material, says one. If John baptized him, says another, he 
was dipped^ at all events, and that's the great point. But, 
what John's relations were to Christ, and what" His disciples 
had yet to learn, they care little to inquire. " His heart is 
right — what more do you want ? " is the cant of the day. It 
never occurs to anybody to " teach him the way of God more 
perfectly." If it should occur to somebody, and if any Aquila 
or Priscilla should undertake to do it, this sweet, heavenly 
charity is rebuked as bigotry. What uncharitable, bigoted, 
conceited creatures those were, to presume to suggest that 
the Rev. ApoUos Alexandrine might possibly be taught " the 
way of the Lord more per fectly P And by such as they! 

The half Christianity of our day never gets any further 
than this : its bare idea is, if one can get to heaven with 
such an imperfect Gospel as he may possess, what need of 
more perfect knowledge ? If it be possible for a soul to be 
saved without being baptized with water, then why should 
I be baptized ? or why should I plague my Quaker friend 
about it, seeing he does not attach any importance to it? 
This is the common-consent Christianity of our day. 



3. A SECOND HALF. 

And this they willingly are ignorant of: that there is 
another half of Christianity which has respect to other 
souls than one's own, and to unborn generations. The 
Gospel has not done its work in getting you and me to 
heaven : there are yet millions to be saved besides us ; ages 
to come must be provided for. The Gospel, therefore, does 
not contemplate a believer as " living to himself, or dying 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 25 

to himself." The Gospel is not a philosophy, nor an idea, 
nor a doctrine, nor a book, nor a head without a body. The 
Gospel is the entire Christ, the Head and the Body ; and 
the incorporation of all believers, as His visible body, is part 
of the Gospel. If you believe, your faith must not be kept for 
yourself alone, you must be so incorporated with Christ as 
to make part of the continuous life and labor of His visible 
body. You are your brother's keeper, and you must let 
Christ economize you, in His own i^ay^ for carrying on His 
own work, so that the promise may be to you, and to your 
children after you, and to as many as the Lord our God. 
shall call. I do not deny, nor do I doubt in the least, that 
God may save your individual soul in the state in which 
ApoUos was found by Aquila and his spouse. I do say 
that unless you " gather with Christ, you scatter ; " I do say 
that you may be saved, " so as by fire," your work being 
lost, and perhaps worse than lost. There is something, 
then, in a whole Christ which this generation sees not. 



4. ALL THINGS DOUBLE. 

It is a principle which runs through nature ; it is illus- 
trated in everything " whose seed is in itself." See, here is 
a fine animal or a fine plant, a bull, a peach-tree, a vine. 
Two ideas are in its nature : (1) its immediate, individual 
being ; (2) its relations to continuous life. The beef can 
be fitted for every use of a beef, under the first idea, even 
when deprived of faculties which belong to the second idea. 
So the plant. " Let us eat the peach, or the grape ; that's 
all they are made for," says one. " I beg pardon," let me 
reply. "You overlook the seminal idea altogether. I 
wish to save the peach-stone, the^ grape-seed, because I 
would plant an orchard, a vineyard, that others also may 
eat and be satisfied when I am gone. I would provide 
for my children also." - 

2 c 



26 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

Here are eggs. " They were made for food ; that's all 
they are good for ; let me eat them," says one. I answer : 
" 'No J these eggs are meant for hatching ; it is important 
that there should be more eggs. A single meal may be all 
you crave, but I must provide for others, and for the ever- 
recurring wants of a household." 

5. AlSrOTHER ILLUSTRATION 

The case is still better illustrated by a bushel of wheat. 
" Let me have it," says your nineteenth-century man. " I 
will turn it into bread ; that's all it is good for." We inter- 
pose and plead for seed- wheat. "Poor fool! " he cries out, 
*' you are pleading for husks and hrcm. I would grind and 
bolt it, and turn it into bread. I would feed the people at 
once ; you are concerned about something that is not bread." 
All this takes with the popular mind : it sounds very fine. 

I simply contend that here are the two ideas : (l) if 
you are personally, and for the moment, to be fed, you are 
wise to turn the wheat into bread as soon as you can ; (2) 
but, if lasting interests and the bread of millions yet unborn 
are to be respected, it is wisdom to save a portion for seed- 
wheat, and to remember that even its husk or bran, the 
mere envelope of the seminal principle, is essential to its 
being sown and supplying bread for future use. 

6. THE SEMIl^AL GOSPEL. 

(1) " Seed for the sower. (2) Bread for the eater." 
Here is the entire Gospel. But, I say, the nineteenth-cen- 
tury Gospel is a half idea, only. Bread, bread, bread! 
Yes, nothing can be better; but " seed, seed, seed !" just 
now is the great want, to the end that the whole world may 
"eat and be satisfied;" to the end that the Bread of Life 
may be ministered unto all men. We shall see that this 
twofold idea must have been in substance presented to 



APOLLOS: OE THE WxVY OF GOP. 27 

ApoUos ; that the seminal and corporate views of Christ's 
way were both parts of the way made perfect. An imperfect 
Gospel might have sufficed to save the soul of ApoUos, and 
of some that heard him ; but the Divine plan for the preser- 
vation and propagation of the entire Gospel, and for the 
ultimate evangelization of the whole world, must have been 
defeated, had not St. Paul and his disciples insisted on 
teaching him and others the way of the Lord more 
perfectly. Even as it was, this brilliant Apollos came near 
being exalted into the head of a sect. He was made, 
against his will, the central idea of a party, or a school. 
They began to say, " I am of Apollos," and St. Paul was 
forced to nip this idea in the bud with his indignant pro- 
test, "Is Christ divided?" Such was the fundamental, 
vitalizing principle of entire unity, which the Holy Ghost 
taught, by the great Apostle. 



7. CONSEQUENCES. 

As soon as Apollos had learned this way, he was " dis- 
posed to go to Achaia," that is to Corinth, where the Church 
was more perfectly organized than at Ephesus ; where 
Sosthenes and probably Timothy and Silas were baptizing, 
and ordering the Churches, and where we must infer he lost 
no time in being baptized with Christ's baptism. There he 
was probably ordained, and there he watered abundantly 
what St. Paul had planted. If in this, we seem to take for 
granted any important step, we propose afterward to show 
that nothing less can be inferred, unless we violate Scriptural 
principles, plainly laid down. 

While he was at Corinth, St. Paul reached Ephesus once 
more, according to his promise, to confirm and settle its 
Church. Here Timothy and others seem to have rejoined 
him, after a time ; here he heard from Aquila and Priscilla 
all about Apollos ; and here they seem to have brought to 



28 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

him twelve others, " certam disciples," with an intimation 
that they also needed to be taught the way of God more 
perfectly. The rest of this history is very instructive to us 
nineteenth-century Gospellers. 

8. CATECHISING. 

These twelve were disciples ; they were penitents ; they 
were believers ; — what would you have more? After the 
preaching of Apollos, it is inconceivable that these disciples 
were ignorant of the Scriptures ; no doubt they were already 
accepted of God, as Cornelius was when he learned more 
perfect lessons from St. Peter. For Cornelius furnishes 
another case in point : he had been accepted, in Noah's 
covenant; like Job; but it was his duty and interest to 
"put on Christ" in baptism, and to be made a member 
of the visible Church. 

St. Paul seems to have had a certain way of beginning 
with new disciples. Whether owing to what he had heard 
of Apollos or not, he catechises them as to something, which 
possibly remained to be done. He asks : " Have ye received 
the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? " Mark this question : 
since ye believed, Nobody can believe without the Spirit's 
influences ; but there is a subsequent gift of the Spirit 
which disciples are expected to receive. I do not think this 
idea is very prominent in the minds of the moderns, though 
John Wesley talked powerfully of " the second grace." 
I shall presently show some reasons for my idea that in this 
he should be imitated. 

9. ANSWERING. 

If the question is remarkable, the answer is hardly less 
so ; they said : " We have not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost." What kind of disciples were 
these ? 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 29 

If the besieged Parisians now, while I write, should be 
asked by some one in authority : " Have you received your 
rations since you gave in your names?" nobody would 
misunderstand the implication of the question. Nor would 
the reply be misunderstood, should they say: "We have 
not even heard whether there be any rations." This does 
not imply that they knew nothing of food and drink ; but 
only that they knew nothing of supplies furnished or to be 
had, on any conditions. 

I accept three explanations of the answer, as probably 
correct. All three may be harmonized, and hence are to 
be preferred to any single one. They meant, (l) whether 
the Holy Ghost imparted Himself in any personal way ; 
(2) they meant, whether any particular gifts of the Holy 
Ghost were imparted to private disciples ; (3) they meant, 
whether that fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit^ promised by 
the Baptist^ had been expressly fulfilled. But, the plain 
Christian record seems designed to startle, and to introduce 
us to the real importance of St. Paul's inquiry. It suggests, 
also, the vast importance of the instrumentality which he 
soon showed to have been given to the Christian Church, 
for the express purpose of introducing each disciple to the 
personality and power of the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier 
and Life-Giver. That gift is so essential to the individual 
and collective life of Christians, that the Redeemer him- 
self declared His going away expedient for us, in order 
that another Comforter should come. The Christian 
Dispensation, then, is the Dispensation of that " other 
Comforter" or Advocate. Compare the prominence of 
this truth, in the acts and writings of the Apostles, with the 
low place assigned to it by popular systems. 

10. A PLAIN QUESTION. 

St. Paul's next words are full of implication, — " Unto 
what then were ye baptized ? " I have already noted that, 



30 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

in our days, this inquiry would not so suggest itself to 
" evangelical " Christians. It is a superfluous question, " if 
the heart is right," according to popular views. Let such a 
question be asked by a poor " formalist," the answer would 
be, "Why don't you inquire hoio we feel? We don't 
think baptism of any consequence at all." This reply would 
be applauded, and hundreds of professed ministers of 
Christ would say : " Very well ; St. Paul was not sent to 
baptize, but to preach the Gospel ; and I can't insist upon 
it, as of any great consequence, if the heart is only right." 
This is no imaginary case. I have known of instances like 
this, and worse. I have known persons who replied : " I 
believe in spiritual baptism, and I do not want any other 
baptism than that." I have known such persons accepted 
as sufiicient Christians, without any intimation that they 
needed to know the way of God more perfectly. 

In repeated instances, when about to administer confir- 
mation to pious persons, who had been for years commimi- 
cants in most respectable Christian denominations, I have 
discovered that they were never baptized at all. Such per- 
sons had been assured, in their former persuasions, that a 
public profession was all that could be required of a converted 
and believing soul. I have also known of Christian baptism 
being so slighted by a prominent divine, and a believer in its 
Scriptural character, that he professed himself " willing to 
baptize the same person a dozen times, if he should ask it." 

St. Paul, careful as he was to let his attendant ministers 
do the baptizing, lest any should say that he baptized 
into Paul^ and in view of the fact that he was the ex- 
ceptional Apostle to whom Christ had not expressly said. 
Go ye and baptize ; St. Paul inquires at once about their 
baptism. They professed themselves disciples ; but disciples 
are made in baptism, according to those words of Christ : 
" Go ye, disciple all nations, baptizing them." Hence, 
" Unto what then were ye, disciples, baptized ? " 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 31 

Here are, also, at least two explanations to be harmo- 
nized ; neither requires the rejection of the other: (1) 
Baptism itself is the work of the Holy Spirit, for " by one 
Spirit are we all baptized into one body ; " water is only the 
external sign of this spiritual work. (2) The Holy Ghost, 
by Christ's command, is to be expressly named in baptism ; 
hence, to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, must 
mean in the Trinal name, which Jesus expressly gave for 
that purpose. 

So St. Paul's question would have this double force: 
(1) If you are disciples you must surely have been baptized 
by the Spirit ; and, also, (2) you must have heard the name 
of the Spirit and must have known that to be " begotten 
of water and the Spirit " is the beginning of the Christian 
life. 

11. JOHNIAXS. 

But they answered, " Unto John's baptism." Oh, that 
alters the case ; John's baptism was not Christian baptism 
at all. It was a preface to it ; it was the seal of acceptance 
and forgiveness of sins, and of a title to a subsequent out- 
pouring of the Spirit ; but John Baptist was but a prophet 
of the Old Testament ; he, like Moses, saw a kingdom at 
hand which he never entered on earth ; " the least in the 
kingdom of Heaven was greater than he." Aquila and 
Priscilla were greater than Apollos, his noblest follower, 
till he had been baptized into Christ. John's ministry had 
accomplished its purpose ; he had decreased and passed 
away ; they must not be Johnians, but Christians. All 
this was embraced in the answer of St. Paul, " John verily 
baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the 
people that they should believe on Him which should come 
after him, that. is, on Christ Jesus." So St. Paul expounds 
the Baptist's own words, which St. Mark thus records: 
" There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of 



32 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 
I indeed have baptized you with water : but He shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Ghost." 

12. CHRISTIANS. 

We know now just where these twelve Johnians stood. 
They stood where modern " evangelicalism " would have 
left them standing. Why not ? They were " converted 
men ; " they were believers ; they were, according to their 
degree, " mighty in the Scriptures ; " they were disciples 
and lovers of Jesus : what more would you have ? Let St. 
Paul and the inspired oracles reply: "When they heard 
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
So the Johnians became Christians. But note : St. Paul 
seems not to have administered the baptism, even in this 
case ; one of his attendant ministers, or, possibly, one of the 
elders of Ephesus, did. Now, then, they were Christians ; 
they had reached the point where the Apostle had originally 
supposed them to stand, and where his first question had 
been designed to reach them. You are now disciples^ and I 
go back to my original inquiry, " Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed ? " We shall see that this inquiry 
has reference to a second gift, and to a seal : to a covenant, 
and an ordinance. 

13. APOSTOLIC UNITY. 

Here comes into view, not a single case, but a system of 
cases in the Scripture history ; not one text, but a whole 
system of texts. They must be examined together if we 
would get any definite idea of the unity and completeness 
of the Gospel as it was delivered by the Apostles, complete 
in its ordinances and institutions, as well as in its doctrines. 
If any man believes that " God is not the author of con- 
fusion ; " if any man believes that the " customs of the 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 33 

Churches of God " were a rule to settle all contentions ; if 
any man accepts the force of St. Paul's words, " I praise 
you that ye keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you ; " 
if any man accepts the force of sucli words as these, viz., (1) 
"Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh 
disorderly and not after the tradition which he received 
of us; " and, (2) " If any man obey not your word by this 
epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that 
he may be ashamed;" or, again, (3) in the same Epistle, so 
strongly does he insist on this, " Hold the traditions which 
ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle : " I 
say, if any man accepts the plain sense of these Scriptures, 
which are only a few out of many to the same effect, then 
he must accept also this position, viz., that there was a 
system of Christian institutions delivered to the primitive 
faithful, which every Christian was bound to obey ; and 
that, in keeping up these institutions, the order and unity 
of the Christian army consisted. So that, although a soul 
might be saved in ignorance of them, the preservation, 
propagation, and triumph of the Gospel depended on their 
enforcement and observance. 

14. THE TWO HALVES. 

In short, there is a Way of God as well as a Word of 
God ; and if there are truths that are not the foundation 
and essence of the Gospel, they may be nevertheless essen- 
tial to its per2yetuatio7i. Just so the fruit of certain plants 
sustains our life, while their hard or bitter seed is all- 
important that others also may eat and that the like may 
be disseminated through the world. " Seed for the sower " 
must be, if we would have " bread for the eater." But this 
is the principle in religion which one can hardly maintain 
in our day without being reputed a formalist. " You are 
crying up mere chaff," they say ; " we care for nothing but 
bread." 

2^ 



34: APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 



15. THE WAY. 

We have reached this point, then, that there is a System 
underlying all the teachings and doings of the Apostles. 
There is a Way of God. What one Apostle enjoined by the 
Holy Ghost another Apostle elsewhere enjoined in like 
manner. The Acts of the Apostles are the Apostolic Con- 
stitutions. Their acts were not the hap-hazard expedients 
of the moment, as they are too commonly assumed to be, 
in the ordinary comments of Apollos the Modern, — that is, 
of many able popular preachers of Christ. Hence, if we 
can pick out an entire harmony of their acts, which meets 
all the conditions, and exhibits such a system, we are 
probably correct in our view of the facts. On the other 
hand, he who runs off with a single case, and treats it inde- 
pendently of the rest of Scripture, may set up almost any 
theory of Gospel ordinances, or he may conclude that none 
of them has any force for us. This latter course intro- 
duces — it has introduced in America — the chaos of sects. 
This chaotic Christianity destroys itself; it cannot but 
perish, giving comparative victory to any organic enemy. 
Hence it is a course which refutes itself and demonstrates 
the wisdom of God in providing certain definite laws for 
His Church, all of which may be found in His Holy Word. 
At least, they may be plainly inferred from what is therein. 

16. THE SECOND STEP, 

Let us go back a little. " Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed 9^"^ This reminds us of the texts: 
" He giveth more grace," and " Of His fulness have we all 
received, and grace upon grace." After baptism, and after 
the first grace^ there was a certain second covenant, and a 
reception of the Holy Ghost, which St. Paul regarded as 
important to believers. When these Johnians had become 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 35 

visibly Christians, had " put on Christ," and " when Paul 
had laid his hands on thera, the Holy Ghost came on them." 
So, of old, before such gifts were common to all, we read 
that " Joshua was full of the Spirit of Wisdom, for Moses 
had laid his hands upon him." 

Yes, but how could it be certain that the laying on of 
hands was a means of grace and of receiving the Holy 
Ghost ? Obviously, i?i the beginning of the Gospel^ some 
external evidence of the power of such an ordinance was 
desirable, if not necessary. Lest it should be denied that 
any grace was given in this Avay, therefore, temporarily, 
" They spake with tongues and prophesied." Extraordinary 
gifts were a sign to non-believers that the ordinary gifts 
of the Spirit had been received. 

17. A DOUBT SETTLED. 

" Yes," says Apollos the Modern, " but you are begging 
the point. I affirm," he adds, " that the only reception of 
the Holy Ghost, about which the Apostle made his ear- 
nest inquiry, was merely the reception of these miraculous 
powers." 

It is not at first so clear that this Apollos Non-Priscus 
is wrong. It must be candidly confessed that it is not 
evident, from this single case^ that such is not the import 
of the entire story. 

Let us first turn, iiowever, to the Apostle's testimony as 
to tongues and prophesyings of this particular sort. In his 
first Epistle to the Corinthians, in the twelfth and the two 
following chapters, he does not seem to make much of such 
gifts. He shows that they were a sign to unbelievers ; 
they proved that something real attends the ordinances. 
He dwells on their temporary and evanescent uses in the 
Church, and their too-ready abuses; and he shows "a 
more excellent way " in expounding Divine love. 



36 APOLLOS: OB THE WAY OF GOD. 

Is it conceivable, then, that St. Paul's first inquiry for the 
welfare of the souls of recent converts at Ephesus, should 
respect merely these outward signs, which some might ex- 
hibit, and which others might not possess, and which were 
purely incidental and non-essential to spiritual life ? When 
he asked, " Have ye received the Holy Ghost ? " could he 
have been such a carnalist as to ask merely for these 
external signs, instead of inquiring for the power of the 
Spirit in the inward essential life of the converts? the 
" more excellent way," the fire of love which is preliminary 
to that growth in grace, which was always St. Paul's first 
matter of anxiety for his converts ? How much more con- 
sistent is another view. He found them, as he supposed, 
baptized disciples of Christ ; he wished to know whether 
they were in progressive sanctification of the Spirit. He 
found that they had never been admitted to the seal of 
Sanctification ; he laid his hands on them, and they received 
it ; and now he could require them to abound in the Spirit 
more and more. 



18. THE SEAL. 

" Nay," says Apollos the Modern, " for you inti^duce a 
new word ; this word seal begs the whole question ; the 
story tells us nothing about that, nor does it hint that St. 
Paul based upon it any appeal to the Ephesians to grow in 
grace." 

Again, this seems a forcible objection, as it is doubtless 
an honest one. 

But, St. Paul's earlier exhortations to the Ephesians 
may be gathered from his Epistle to that Church. He wrote 
it a few years after, and there we find just what our Modern 
Apollos thought I had no right to say : " In whom, after 
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise." Again, he says : " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 37 

God, whereby ye are sealed?'^ Here he refers to a sealing 
of the disciples, after they had believed^ answering expressly 
to his question at Ephesus, "Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed ? " Answering also to the historic 
fact that they had received the Holy Ghost by the laying 
on of hands. It is impossible to believe that what St. Paul 
required, of the twelve Johnians, was any more or less than 
he required of all who came to Christ ; to whom there- 
fore, in common, he could say, " Ye were sealed?'^ 

ISTovv, if St. Paul required this, so did all the Apostles; 
for is it possible to credit that what the Apostle Paul 
taught to be necessary, would have been overturned by 
another Apostle, as not of any importance ? Was the in- 
spiring Spirit the " author of confusion," or of order, " in 
all the Churches ? " It is not possible for any logical 
believer to get rid of this fact, viz., that there is " a way of 
God," including seals and sacraments, which was every- 
where taught in harmony, by the Apostles, because they 
acted under the inspiration of the One Spirit, and hence 
taught " One Faith and One Baptism." 



19. ITS UTILITY. 

Our Lord's remarkabfe promise of the Comforter, as of 
more importance to the Church than His own visible 
presence ; this, and the Acts of the Apostles viewed as the 
" Gospel of the Holy Ghost ; " these, and the perpetual 
reference to the Spirit with which the Epistles and the 
Apocalypse abound, lead me to think that Apollos the 
Modern, with all his excellent gifts, does yet very imper- 
fectly bring out what is in the lN"ew Testament about the 
Sanctifier, the Comforter, " the Lord and Giver of Life." 

Among tolerably informed people, who are reputed 
Christians, in our rural districts, the prevalent idea of the 
Holy Ghost is that He awakens and converts sinners. 



38 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

Beyond that, they are, generally, not so instructed as to 
answer intelligently concerning the Spirit. They more 
often use the word It than He^ in speaking of the Holy 
Ghost. Never keeping the Feast of Pentecost, and know- 
ing nothing of any sealing of the Spirit, " since they 
believed," it is surprising how little they are familiar with 
His personality, and with "the seven gifts," as matters 
for Christian knowledge. 

But how harmonious with this prominence of the Spirit 
in the New Dispensation, is the fact that a sealing of the 
Spirit is referred to. For, if this seal be one of the ordi- 
nances of the Gospel, it must be of great practical use in 
teaching every believer to know the Holy Ghost in His 
person and His influences, and to depend on His daily 
augmenting power in the soul, for victory over the world, 
and the flesh, and the devil. 



20. ANOTHER INQUIRY. 

Yes ; but that does not settle the question. Is there 
sufficient evidence of such an ordinance or institution inde- 
pendent of baptism, even granting that, so far, its probability 
must be allowed ? A fair question shall be fairly answered. 
And my answer meets the case of Apollos and the other 
twelve Johnians in a very remarkable manner. We turn 
to St. Paul's reference to the elementary principles of the 
Doctrine of Christ, and there we find (l) " the doctrine of 
baptisms, and (2) of laying on of hands." There was 
doctrine^ then, concerning these things, and it was not 
doctrine for a select few, who, instead of " coveting earnestly 
the best gifts," were ambitious to speak with tongues ; it 
was common doctrine for all Christians^ — the principles 
lying at the foundation of going on to perfection. 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 39 



21. THE DOCTEINE OF BAPTISMS. 

There are baptisms, dual, if not plural, and there is a 
doctrine about them. But why this plural ? Why baptisms 
instead of baptism ? We believe in " one baptism : " then 
why is more than one here referred to ? 

It is explained in this very case of Apollos, and that of 
the other twelve. They were obliged to learn that John's 
baptism was not Christian baptism. " The doctrine of 5a^> 
tis)7is " was, in part, what Apollos had to learn from Aquila 
and Priscilla, and this accounts for the plural. But the 
laying on of hands is also mentioned. We have seen that 
it was practised by St. Paul, and called a seal. In the case 
of the converts at Samaria, precisely similar is the record. 
The Apostles sent down Peter and John to lay hands on 
those whom Philip had baptized. Was it simply for that 
which Simon Magus coveted ? simply that they might have 
miraculous powers ? or was it for " the more excellent 
way " of the grace of God in their hearts ? Of this, 
tongues might be a momentary sign ; but surely the promo- 
tion of a holy life was the only worthy end, for which the 
Apostolic journey was made, and for which they invoked 
the Spirit, with laying on of hands. 



22. STEPS. 

Let us look at St. Paul's catalogue of elementary prin- 
ciples. He gives them thus : 

1. Repentance. 

2. Faith. 

3. Baptism. 

4. Laying on of hands. 

5. The Resurrection. 

6. The Judgment. 



40 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



K 



What right has Apollos the Modern to insist on 'No. 1 
and No. 2, and to strike No. 3 and No. 4 out of his preach- 
ing, exposition, doctrines, and eloquence ? 

Now, Apollos Non-Priscus makes no scruple to answer 
that Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 6, are of vast importance ; but " he 
can't see the importance of 3 and 4." How much imperfect 
knowledge, not to say unbelief, is bound up in this answer 
it is impossible to estimate. "What God hath joined 
together, let no man put asunder." Are we authorized to 
invent a modified Gospel ? or must we simply preach 
the Gospel of Christ as it is written, and as it was once 
delivered to the saints ? 

Supposing this catalogue had been given without refer- 
ence to the outward signs, and simply with respect to the 
inward grace. Then it would have stood thus : 

1. Repentance from dead works. 

2. Faith toward God. 

3. Grafting into Christ. 

4. Sanctification of the Spirit. 

5. Resurrection of the body. 

6. Eternal judgment. 

I have said " No. 3, Grafting into Christ," because I 
wish to leave out of sight, just here, the dispute about 
Regeneration, and because, whether Baptism be the means 
of " Grafting into Christ " or not, it is universally allowed 
to be the sign, symbol, representation, or what-not, of the 
necessity of being so grafted. 

Now, St. Paul might have put Nos. 3 and 4 as I have 
put them in my list, leaving " ordinances " quite out of 
sight. 

Then, everybody would have seen the logical force and 
sequence of these elementary ideas. For, thus it would 
stand: Any one desiring to be Christ's disciple must (1) 
repent of his sins; (2) must believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; (3) must become partaker of His covenant of re- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 41 

demption ; (4) must be sanctified by His Spirit, and " grow 
in grace ; " (5) must look for the Resurrection of the 
Dead, and (6) prepare for the Judgment to come. 

23. MEANS AND ENDS. 

The apostle might have put it thus, but he did not ; he 
might have made no reference to external signs, but he did 
make such reference. Why ? Was he less spiritual because 
he put forward the means of grace, the positive institutions 
of the Holy Spirit ; implying, of course, their deep signifi- 
cance, yet not obscuring their external forms ? 

Observe, too, " the doctrine of laying on of hands." 
This implies that there was doctrine about it. It was no 
mere casual ceremony of the moment, connected with the 
unimportant and transient gift of tongues. It stood for 
something spiritual and belonging to the doctrine of Christ, 
which was " the doctrine of Him that sent Christ " — the 
Way of God. 



D* 



III-EXTERN"ALS. 

1. CHRISTIAN ORDINAl^CES. 

Let us look into this doctrine. To say nothing of other 
views of the matter ; though ordinances may not be of 
great importance in themselves, yet they may be such, in 
view of relations and duties. For (1) they may be tests 
of obedience ; and (2) they may be of vast importance to 
that " showing-forth " of Christ, that " testimony of Jesus," 
which the Christian Church exists to perpetuate. 

As to obedience^ (1) this principle runs through all 
Scripture. To our first parents it was given in the forbid- 
den fruit. Infidels think they have a great advantage when 
they show the non-importance of this primal precept. But, 
do we not minister to this infidel spirit, when we show the 
non-importance of Christian " ordinances ?" Doubtless the 
infidel would have complained much more loudly had God 
required of our first parents some hard, positive precept; 
some severe task of obedience. But to the sweet liberties 
of Paradise no such law would have been congruous ; 
therefore the slight negative precept — "Eat not." l^ow, 
the unbeliever complains of this easy law — this liberal test 
of the obedience, not of servants, but of children. Under 
the Mosaic system there was " a yoke of ordinances." It was 
hard, and suited a state of bondage. Under the Gospel 
this yoke is broken, since the day of the Synod of Jerusalem. 
Obedience is again reduced to an easy test, so far as ordi- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 43 

nances are concerned. Yet now, not infidels but believers 
make light of it. " There can be no use of such a thing as 
outward washing," they say. Yet, there may be use in 
obeying Christ ; and it is He who says — " Believe and be 
baptized.'''^ 

2. N A AM AN-. 

Naaman learned something of this in the typical bap- 
tism which washed away his leprosy. He, too, one might 
say, in the spirit of our times, was opposed to carnal ordi- 
nances. He despised Jordan and the washing of water, 
though they were according to the word of the Lord by the 
prophet. But there is another view of the matter — " My 
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, 
wouldest thou not have done it ? how much rather, then, 
when he saith to thee. Wash and be clean ?" Here was a 
more profound philosophy. Though the water and the wash- 
ing were of little moment in themselves, yet obedience^ imply- 
ing humility and faith, was a very great thing. The prophet 
exacted of him faith, humility, and obedience — these three, 
though he named only their outward test. Therefore, when 
Naaman washed away his leprosy, "his flesh came again, 
like unto the flesh of a little child." Yes, and his stony 
heart also became childlike, as it is written — " Except ye 
receive the kingdom of God as a little child, ye shall not 
enter therein." I argue that when the Apostle, like the 
prophet, named the "washing of water" and the "laying on 
of hands," he was acting on the same profound philosophy. 
For it is involved in those simple institutions of the Gospel ; 
and when he enjoined the observance of them, he brought 
faith and obedience and humility to a practical test. He 
exacted " the spirit of a little child." 



4:4: APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



3. SILO AM. 

So, too, our blessed Lord. He wrought many miracles 
without signs, as when he healed the nobleman's child by a 
word and at a distance. Thus He teaches us, I suggest, (1) 
His own Imperial superiority to external means and ordi- 
nances. But again. He tied some of His gracious gifts to 
external signs ; and herein, I submit. He teaches us (2) our 
filial subjection to any tests of obedience or any means 
of mercy He may ordain. " Go wash in the pool of 
Siloam." Doubtless in this case the poor man would have 
died blind, had he reasoned about the insignificance of that 
water, refused to obey, or insisted that Christ should heal 
him, as He had been pleased to heal others, by a mere word. 
He was more wise, however. It was not altogether an easy 
condition for a blind man. Doubtless, it must have occurred 
to him, " What is there in this water? They use it for very 
homely purposes in the neighboring village." In this case, 
large faith was required. It was, moreover, a task. It 
required effort, but he obeyed and washed, and came seeing. 
The moral is, that Christ can save millions of men without 
the use of His own ordinances ; but for us, who are bidden 
to use them, and to whom they are offered, there is one 
simple test of obedience — " Believe and be baptized." We 
neglect that law at our peril ; but blessed be God, Christ is 
above His own laws, and can forgive any honest or ignorant 
mistake. It is Law not for Him, but it is Law for us. 

4. OEDII^ANCES AS TESTIMONIES. 

As to relative importance (2) the wisdom of these ex- 
ternal parts of the Gospel-system is wonderful : truly " the 
foolishness of God is wiser than men." Just as the chaff is 
nothing to the flour it enfolds, if " bread for the eater " is to 
be thought of, and yet becomes of the utmost importance just 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 45 

where it is, if " seed for the sower " is brought into view, 
so the external parts of this system become of vast import- 
ance Avhen we are concerned with that testimony to the 
world in favor of the Gospel, of which every believer is 
bound' to make himself an instrument. Millions in America 
live and die in the easy persuasion, from which no trumpet 
of united testimony rouses them, that they are rather the 
better for " reading their Bibles " and " leading moral lives," 
while not " making any profession of religion," as they term 
it. Inverted Pharisaisn^ of American inorganic Christian- 
ity ! They make a merit of not obeying, and of being so 
good mthout the means of grace. But observe the conse- 
quences; in our rural districts, and throughout the great 
West, thousands — the children of old Puritan parents, now 
men and women — are living on this principle. The salt of 
their own early training exercises some influence on thein^ 
but how is it with their children ? Unbaptized, untrained, 
uncatechised, rarely attending public worship, and utterly 
ignorant that the open confession of Christ and the " seals 
of His 'covenants" are of any consequence to them, this 
third generation is now growing up in gross irreligion or 
utter indifierence. Their children again will be heathen. 

Thus they give a significant testimony to the practical 
importance of a princij^le which is not Jewish, nor Christian, 
but founded in human nature, and which has been adopted 
by God in all His dealings with men from the beginning. 
It is the principle of covenants perpetuated by ordinances, 
or seals, from generation to generation, to which the primi- 
tive institution of the family is made auxiliary. Under 
Christ, the ordinances are few, but the principle is the same. 
" The nurture and admonition of the Lord," as we have 
seen, includes these ordinances, " which He commanded our 
forefathers to teach their children ; that their posterity 
might know it and the children which were yet unborn ; to 
the intent that when they came up, they might show their 



46 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

children the same." In America, this Divine philosophy is 
discarded. Thousands of parents never give their children 
occasion to inquire, " What mean ye by this ordinance ? " 
And the result is, with their contempt for Christian ordi- 
nances, " the testimony of Jesus " is also dying out in the 
land. When German Protestantism threw away the cor- 
porate system of the Gospel, Divine Providence permitted 
a corrupt form of His Church to regain much of its lost 
ground. And just as the Protestantism of this country is 
reaching the ultimate stages of inorganic development. He 
is permitting Popery to become its scourge and its monitor, 
by the power of its organization. 



5. DEM AS. 

Now, if a neglect of organic law and ordinances had been 
the apostolic system, or rather lack of system, how surely 
they must have scattered^ instead of gathering with Christ. 
It was no easy thing in those days to profess Christ. It 
cost every believer something : the " spoiling of their goods," 
the being " counted as sheep for the slaughter." How very 
comfortable it would have been had this nineteenth-century 
gospel been taught in the first century — "Be good, read 
your Bibles, and God will not ask you," etc. Ah ! that 
would just have suited brother Demas, " who loved this 
present world," and had no idea of " coming out of it and 
being separate." He would have lived and died, " respect- 
ing religion," as the phrase is, but chiefly consoled by that 
blessed doctrine, " It makes no difference about externals, 
provided the heart is only right." " Precisely so," brother 
Demas would have said ; " I trust my heart is all right, but 
Pve no trust in ordinances^ To come out and be baptized, 
and to receive the laying on of hands, and to frequent the 
Lord's Supper — " these things," he would have argued, " are 
well enough for those who are so superstitious. But lapi- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 47 

elation of the Jews is uncomfortable ; beheading and other 
tortures of the Romans inA^olve great personal sacrifices. I 
can ' believe in my heart ^"^ you know, without confessing with 
my r)iouth^ or submitting to those outward things which 
carnal minds make so much of. Yes, I've always been con- 
soled by those spiritual views of the Gospel which teach me 
to be a good Christian in ony hearty without submitting to 
any formal system, subversive as such systems must be 
of our Christian liberty." 



6. SHEWING rOETH. 

Now, I submit, if this gospel according to Demas Iiad 
been the Gospel as the Apostles ministered it, what woukl 
have been the result ? There would never have been any 
disciple more forward than he " who came to Jesus by night." 
In the synagogues and in the palace of Nero, believers 
might have been very numerous, but they would have kept 
it to themselves, and the Gospel would never have been 
handed down to their children. There would have been no 
testimony; no confessing of Christ before men; no " shew- 
ing forth the Lord's death ; " no " holding forth the Word of 
Life ; " hence no " seed for the sower." The Gospel would 
haA^e perished where it began, and we ourselves must have 
been heathen. Truly, '' the foolishness of God is wiser than 
men." The nineteenth century needs to be told, as by 
another John Baptist, crying, not in the wilderness, but 
throughout all Christendom, that the " obedience of faith" 
is exacted of every man, and that not to confess Christ 
openly, that is, not to accept His covenant in the institutions 
He has provided, is virtually to deny Him. But this testi- 
mony requires a previous recurrence to first-principles on 
the part of all Christians — a recurrence to those precepts of 
unity which are involved in the simple elements I have thus 
endeavored to illustrate. 



48 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

7. WHAT APOLLOS UNDERSTOOD. 

To go back to Apollos ; let us ask where he stood when 
Aquila and Priscilla ventured to tell him he had yet some- 
thing to learn in the elements, or ^'principia of the doctrine 
of Christ." He stood just here : he knew much about 
(1) Repentance, (2) much about Faith, (3) much about the 
Resurrection, (4) and much about the Judgment to come. 
John Baptist certainly did not leave him ignorant (1) of 
the nature of true, earnest, evangelical penitence, (2) nor 
of faith in the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of 
the world, (3) nor of that resurrection to which even 
Pharisees bore witness, (4) nor of that judgment which he 
called " the wrath td come." All this Apollos knew ; he 
was instructed in the way of the Lord ; and all this he 
taught mightily out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, 
for the New Testament was not yet written, and his preach- 
ing was attended with the most blessed results, and who 
could deny that the Lord was with him, and was giving him 
souls for his reward ? 

8. WHAT HE DID NOT UNDERSTAND. 

Aquila and Priscilla perceived, however, that he did not 
understand (1) " the doctrine of baptisms," else he would 
not himself neglect the baptism of Christ, (2) "the doc- 
trine of the laying on of hands," else he would more 
perfectly understand the mission of the Comforter, the 
nature of progressive holiness, and the indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost. 

Here let it be said, though I shall not now attempt the 
proof, that Christian Baptism in the Scriptures seems to be 
so identified with the laying on of hands by the Apostles, as 
part of the same, that the Sacrament is regarded as incom- 
plete, till this complement is administered. The case of the 
Samaritans, and this case of the Johnians, may serve as 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 49 

illastrations of the remark. Till the Apostles came and 
supplied what was lacking by "the laying on of hands," 
the initiatory Sacrament was imperfect. The Apostles' 
fellowship, the Communion of Saints, the fellowship of the 
Holy Ghost, these were one and the same thing ; and those 
only were fully initiated, who had received the Holy Ghost, 
as St. Paul directed at Ephesus. I merely suggest thi^ now, 
for what it may be seen and felt to be worth. I may 
return to accumulate evidence on this point. The descent 
of the Spirit upon Christ himself, after He was baptized, 
while it had other meanings, seems also to be an intimation 
of what should be the complement of Christian Baptism. 



9. AN ILLUSTRATION. 

A most respectable body of men are the Evangelical 
Quakers of America, and few will deny that they under- 
stand much, if not all, that Apollos understood. Is not 
the interference of Aquila and Priscilla regarded as most 
impertinent, however, if any believer ventures to remind 
them that they need to understand "the way of God" 
more perfectly ? Many of them are zealous members of 
the Bible Society : are they not constantly assured by its 
orators " of all Evangelical denominations," that their un- 
baptized condition makes no difference so long as all agree 
to circulate the Bible ? That is to say, so long as they 
agree to neutralize much of its teaching, by denying, prac- 
tically, that the Bible teaches any particular " way of God " ; 
by denying that it enables us to know that w^ay, not par- 
tially, but perfectly. 

I assert, without fear of contradiction, that if a denom- 
ination of Christians existed now among us, called " the 
Evangelical Apollonian Church," standing precisely where 
Apollos stood, w^hen Aquila heard him, it would be accounted 
unpardonable bigotry for any one, no matter how kindly, to 
3 E 



50 APOLLOS : OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

testify that its reverend pastors were essentially deficient in 
Christian knowledge and teaching ; or that they needed to 
be taught the way of God more perfectly. 



10. A SUPPOSED CASE. 

" The Reverend Apollos Deuteros preached last evening, 
in the vast Apollonian tabernacle, to a congregation of five 
thousand Jews and unbelievers, and with such amazing 
force and eloquence, that it is believed very few left without 
the deepest sense of sin, nor without heart-searching con- 
victions that Jesus is the Christ. He taught thorough 
Evangelical repentance ; he pointed the sinner to the Lamb 
of God ; he testified to the immortality of the soul, and he 
urged that vast assembly to ' flee from the wrath to come.' 
It is impossible for words of ours to do justice to the 
extraordinary eloquence of this truly great divine, and to 
his might in expounding the Scriptures. Can it be believed 
that any Christians object to his preaching, as one-sided 
and partial, because he avoids laying stress on the Chris- 
tian ordinances? One brother, a very respectable sail- 
cloth manufacturer, Mr. Aquila — and Mrs. Priscilla, his 
wife — were even so bigoted as to remark, in our hearing, 
that after bringing those great truths to bear on so many 
hearts, he should have pressed on them the importance of 
being haptized^ as well as of believing and repenting, and 
they even added something about 'the laying on of hands,' 
which seemed to imply that we can't be good Christians, 
unless a bishop is allowed to lay his hands on our heads. 
This, in the nineteenth century ! " 

I put it to the conscience of my readers, whether the 
above paragraph is other than a fair outline of what would 
be found in such circumstances, in the widely-circulated 
columns of the most respectable religious newspapers of 
America. I ask whether correspondents of the Times would 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 51 

not send sucli articles for insertion in London ; whether our 
excellent Christian brethren of " the Evangelical Alliance " 
would not applaud such views of the case, as precisely what 
they exist to propagate ? If so, are they, in so far, truly 
"Evangelical"? Is Aquila — is Priscilla — held up to just 
ridicule, in this case? On which side speaks the Holy 
Scriptures ? Which is the Gospel ? What does the Holy 
Ghost teach? Is it not consistent with the most fervent 
charity, love of Christ, and regard for brother Apollos 
Deuteros, that meek brother Aquila and sister Priscilla 
should say just what they did say — " speaking the truth in 
love " ? And if the Reverend Apollos Deuteros is worthy 
of his name, how can he refuse their testimony ? 



11. A MODERN CONYERSATION^. 

I can fancy a modern conversation on such subjects, the 

speakers being " Mrs. Syntyche ," a most estimable 

Christian lady, belonging to the " First Apollonian Church 

of Square," and " Mrs. Euodias ," in some way 

connected with the bigots aforesaid. It might proceed as 
follows : 

Syntyche, How glad I was to see you in the crowd listen- 
ing to that wonderful man, our excellent pastor. You must 
admit that you never heard a better preacher. 

Euodias, He is one for whom I have the profoundest 
respect ; circumstances led me to be one of his hearers, last 
evening, and my soul was filled with gratitude for the 
glorious things he testified concerning Jesus and the 
Resurrection. I bless God that there is such a man, so 
eloquent and so mighty in the Scriptures, to whom such 
crowds are willing to listen. I am sure they could not have 
heard him without benefit. 

Syntyche, Why, you are wellnigh a convert. Such 
liberal sentiments from you ! They call you quite bigoted, 



52 APOLLOS : OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

but I shall never permit any one to say that again. Now, 
did you ever liear anything so fine as that appeal — " Flee 
from the wrath to come " ? 

Eiiodias. I never was more impressed. I pray God I 
may profit by it. It is our season of Advent, and I was 
specially prepared for just such preaching. 

Syntyche. ISTow, forgive me for my plain question, but 
did you ever hear such an appeal from your worthy rector? 

Eiiodias. Assuredly not. Mr. Apollos is a much greater 
man, and in some respects he is even mightier in the Scrip- 
tures ; perhaps, in others not so. Few are so gifted as he, 
and I am often consoled that our system of the Christian 
Year stirs us up, and presents us with all the great truths of 
the Gospel in their season, even when our excellent clergy- 
men may lack somewhat of those powers and graces which 
God distributes to only a few of His servants, now and 
then — one in a generation. 

Syntyche. Yes, you have many excellent things in your 
Church ; but I, for one, prefer live men to dead systems. 

12. CONTINUED. 

Euodias. There, perhaps, we might differ, that is, if you 
mean to call all systems dead systems. I should express it 
thus : that " a live system is better than any living man, 
because such a man cannot live always, and can only be in 
one place at a time ; but a living system of truth may work 
everywhere, and must stand forever. Systems survive men. 
Inorganic religion depends on its ministers. Excellent men 
and preachers have stood in the pulpits of Switzerland, and 
Holland, and our own New-England, and have preached 
Christ faithfully ; but for want of a living system they have 
died, and no one has come up to carry on their labor, and 
many of those who stand in their places no longer preach it 
at all, but even 'deny the Lord that bought them.'" 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 53 

Syntyche, Yes, I've no sympathy with such. They are 
not " Evangelical Christians ; " but for one I am willing to 
pin my faith to the sleeve of such a man as that angel in 
the pulpit, whom you heard last evening, with such profit. 

Euodias, But how is this ? Isn't it a little like " having 
men's persons in admiration," against which we are so often 
warned in the Scriptures ? Is this evangelical ? 

Syntyche, Oh, but I'm sure that didn't mean such a 
Gospel preacher as Mr. ApoUos. I'm quite sure I shall be 
safe if I follow him. 



13. A DANGER. 

Euodias, There's the danger. We are warned Hot to 
say — " I am of Paul, I am of ApoUos." We may not even 
say — " I am of Christ," if it be a pretext for " separating 
ourselves," that is to say, forsaking " the Apostles' doctrine 
and fellowship," which is Christ's own entire and perfect 
system of faith and unity. I admire Mr. Apollos as truly 
as you do, and I trust I may profit by what he has taught 
me out of the Scriptures; but God forbid that I should 
follow any man, except in the paths of entire obedience to 
the whole Gospel — the perfect way of God. 

Syntyche, I fear I must take back what I said about 
your liberality. Now, you do not, seriously, mean to say 
that the Rev. Apollos Deuteros, that eloquent divine, that 
man so mighty in the Scriptures, that profound scholar, who 
has more learning in the tips of his fingers than some of 
your bishops carry in their mitred heads — you don't mean 
to make me laugh by saying that he don't understand the 
whole Gospel ? 

Euodias, Forgive me ; but you know " Dr. Asyncri- 
tus ; " you allow him to have equal claims on your respect, 
as a man of Christian learning, and even genius, with the 
Reverend Mr. Apollos — 



54 APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

Syntyche. Hardly ! Well, perhaps so. 

JEuodias. His own flock regard him as very greatly 
superior, and you will admit he is a man of large erudition, 
great eloquence, and great zeal for Christ. 

Syntyche. Well, allow all that ; what does it signify ? 

JEuodias, You know his entire disagreement with IMr. 
Apollos — 

Syntyche. Oh ! that's about things non-essential — 

Eiiodias. If so, all the worse. Christ's ministers dividing 
His body for non-essentials ? Dr. A., it is fair to say, doe§ 
not so regard it, for he will not administer the Communion 
to Mr. Apollos — 

Syntyche. Still, he acknowledges him to be as much a 
minister of Christ as himself, and he often speaks of him as 
"his dear brother in Christ," and I've seen them shake 
hands, and agree to differ, and — 

Euodias. This '^ agreeing to differ " makes my point, how- 
ever. I should like to know where the Gospel authorizes 
that, and why I have not a right to say that one or the 
other of these two great men needs to be " taught the way 
of God more perfectly," since, great as they are, they can 
only agree to differ about the very elements — about " the 
doctrine of baptisms," which is primary, which is the very 
first thing in the evangelical commission — " Go ye and dis- 
ciple all nations, baptizing," etc. 



14. EEJOIKDERS. 

Syntyche. It's likely Mr. Apollos doesn't understand his 
commission ! Do you really think you could teach him ? 

Euodias. I think the Scriptures could teach him, and I 
think my position is quite consistent with humility and with 
the Gospel. For I read in the eighteenth chapter of Acts, 
of a man more able and wonderful than any one we have 
named ; I read that he was (1) eloquent, (2) mighty in the 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 55 

Scriptures, (3) instructed in the way of the Lord, (4) fer- 
vent in the spirit, (5) a diligent speaker and teacher of the 
things of the Lord, (6) a bold antagonist of the synagogue, 
(7) and a pupil of no less a preacher and baptizer than John 
Baptist. Now, I pause to ask, whether I could say more of 
the Rev. Mr. Apollos Deuteros than is here said of his 
ancient namesake ? 

Sy7ityche. That's quite enough, and if you admit all 
that of my admired friend and pastor, I'm sure you ought 
to take back what you said of his not understanding the 
whole Gospel. Surely, if that's not the portrait of an 
evangelical preacher, what is ? 

JEuodias. Thank you ; and I trust you will allow that I 
am no bigot when I say that I admit almost every word of 
this as applicable to your justly admired friend and pastor. 
God bless him. 

Syntyche, Yet you talked of his needing a more thorough 
teaching, and I verily thought you and your husband were 
going to ask him to one of your dinner-parties, with a view 
to set about instructing that wonderful man. You, indeed ! 
But, forgive me. 

Euodias, I propose to read a little further about this 
ancient angel of the pulpit. I beg you hear this : (reads,) 
" Whom, when Aquila and Priscilla heard, they took hwi 
mito them and expounded unto him the way of God more 
perfectly." 

Syntyche, Does it say so ? Let me see. I wonder what 
they could have told him. That text doesn't apply to this 
case; I'm sure you couldn't give any new ideas to my 
pastor. 

Eaodias, Probably not. I'm glad that it does not seem 
to be my personal duty to do just as those ancient disciples 
did. Yet I cannot but think that there are those who 
might awaken that extraordinary man to some new and 
vastly important views of the Divine system. 



56 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

Sy7ityche. I can't bear to hear you talk so. I suppose 
we must all join your Church! Never! To leave such 
preaching for the cold, formal — 

Euodias. That might have been said when St. Paul's 
bodily presence was described as weak and his speech as 
contemptible. There were those at Corinth who were 
desirous to be called disciples of Apollos. Yet the Scrip- 
tures testify to the fact that Apollos had only an imperfect 
Gospel, and that St. Paul had the whole of it. I do 
not claim anything now for my own Church, of which I 
have not said a word. I only assert that I have proved two 
things : (1) that one may love and admire a great and good 
man, and rejoice in his noble gifts and fruitful labors, and 
yet (2) may assert, in all charity, that he needs to be taught 
the way of God more perfectly, seeing that the existence 
of such a way implies that to know and teach anything less 
than the whole of it is but to know and teach an imperfect 
Christianity. 

Syntyche, I should like to see anybody trying to teach 
my pastor. 

15. CONCLUSIONS. 

Euodias, The most glorious thing about this Apollos of 
thB Scriptures is his wonderful humility. He was willing to 
sit at the feet of any one who could show him a more perfect 
way. And I think this, at least, that nothing is wanted for 
the restoration of that primitive unity on which the 
Scriptures insist so powerfully, save only a primitive humil- 
ity, which might lead great and good men to come together 
and learn, if not of tent-makers, yet one of another, 
invoking the Holy Ghost to enlighten their understandings, 
and to " lead them into all truth." I ask, is there not a 
cause? Look at the religious condition of this country; 
consider the power which a united Christianity would 
exercise over forty millions of men speaking the same 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 57 

language and spreading over a Continent. On the other 
hand, see what power the enemy has over a divided Chris- 
tianity. I know of scores of villages where, among a dozen 
religious sects, not one can afford to sustain a pastor. 
Think of their children ; reflect on their future. And is 
there to be no remedy ? 

Syntydie, I do not see any way while men's minds are 
so different. 

JEuodias, The Holy Ghost, who commands us to "be of 
one mind," and to " speak the same thing," is able to make 
it so when once we admit the duty and so prepare our 
souls to obey it. 

Syntyche, What would be the result, as you imagine ? 

Euodias, There would soon be an end of divisions ; 
men would cease to call themselves after this Paul and that 
Apollos ; the disciples would all be one, as the Holy and 
undivided Trinity are one; one in absolute, essential, or- 
ganic unity ; and then the w^orld would begin to believe 
that the Father sent the Son; there would be " one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism. 



99 



16. FRACTURES REDUCIBLE. 

After hearing these ladies talk, I am inclined to state 
the case thus : (1) the existing divisions among good men, 
Evangelical believers and earnest preachers of Christ and 
Him crucified, are utterly inconsistent with the spirit and 
precepts of the Gospel; (2) the admission of this truth 
is the first step toward an effectual effort for the repair of 
this evil and all its disastrous effects on our age and country ; 
(3) the spirit which is wanted first of all, then, is the spirit 
of humility, so gloriously illustrated in the example of 
Apollos ; (4) the Spirit of God can do the rest, as soon as 
these good men are disposed to learn one of another, all 
being " subject one to another," and being " clothed with 
3^ 



58 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

humility." Yes, all that is wanted, to begin with, is that 
heart-humility which led Saul the great and the learned, to 
name himself Paul^ that is, the little^ and to dwell on this 
idea, saying, " To me, who am less than the least of all 
saints, is this grace given." Well does St. Jerome teach us 
to respond, " Yes, O Paul, but because least therefore 
greatest ; because lower than all in thy self-abasement, 
therefore higher than all in the sight of meii, of angels, 
and of Christ." 



lY.-HARMONIES. 



1. INFERENCES. 



How much some of our " Evangelical " brethren, as I 
cordially call them, trusting I am not the less Evangelical 
should they refuse so to call me in return, — how much they 
take for granted when they please, and how much they will 
not accept that is fairly proven, when they don't please. 
Thank God for pure hearts, supplementing and supplanting 
somewhat illogical heads. They will believe nothing, ex- 
cept on Scri^Dture testimony, not they. Dear souls, but on 
what testimony do they believe the ]N'ew Testament to be 
Scripture? Alas! they prove every jot and tittle of the 
Gospel to be the Gospel, on testimony which they will not 
allow to be worth a rush for any otlier use, not even as 
helping to the right understanding of Scripture. Oh ! 
blessed right of good people to be unreasonable in believing 
right. But that is not my point. Inside of Scripture, what 
inconsistencies in their belief. If there be a thousand 
difficulties in the way of what they wish to believe, no 
matter. They will not hallow the seventh day, though 
Scripture seems to command it, expressly; and they do 
most scrupulously hallow the first day, though a common 
mortal finds the Scriptural argument on their principles of 
interpretation extremely feeble. So, again, there are those 
who will not keep Christmas, because Scripture does not 
expressly enjoin it, but who will not use the Lord's Prayer, 
apparently, because it does. But of these I am not now 
speaking. I come to something fundamental, which good 
and earnest and learned and wise Evangelical believers 
would not give up for their lives. 



60 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 



2. MARK THIS. 

Our Lord was, literally, descended from David, accord- 
ing to the flesh. The whole Gospel of Jesus Christ, and all 
tlie prophecies as fulfilled in Him, hang on this thread. If 
this be AOt true, our faith is vain. But how do they prove 
this, from Scripture? The only express proof, from certain 
Apostolic references, may be fairly said to reduce itself to 
the genealogies of the two Evangelists, according to the use 
and phraseology of the Jews. But these genealogies only 
embarrass the matter. Harmonize them as you may, you 
get not a step nearer to your proof. These genealogies 
only show that Joseph was the son of David ; but we know 
that our Lord was not of the seed of Joseph at all. Yes, 
you can meet this objection, I know; but if you permit the 
infidel to treat your inferences as to the Blessed Virgin's 
natural descent from David, just as you will be disposed to 
treat much plainer inferences of mine, it is certain he will 
not leave much to your faith on this point. 

But please observe, just here, that when I ask you to 
admit an inference, it shall be fairly made out, and simply 
too. It shall involve not a tenth part of the difficulty and 
indirect argument which must all be encountered before 
you can reach that very fine and delicate point about the 
seed of David, which you, nevertheless, justly regard as the 
very pivot of our blessed Evangelical faith. All this is 
said by the way. 

3. EXCEPTIONAL CASES. 

But, before advancing further, it may be well to observe 
that, when we perceive a law to be given to us, by plain 
letter or by fair inference, we are bouiid by that law. Yet 
we may gladly admit that the Law-giver is not ; and that He 
is prepared for all exceptional cases. Blessed be His name 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 61 

for this supremacy, to which we rejoice to leave others, 
while, for ourselves, we strive to obey. '' The good Lord 
pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the 
Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed accord- 
ing to the purification of the sanctuary." But every 
exception confirms the rule. " He followeth not us : forbid 
him notP But this does not annul the law, for we are 
commanded to be "followers" of the Apostles of Christ, 
over and over again. It may not be our prerogative to 
forbid what, nevertheless, it is our duty not to imitate. 
"To his own Master he standeth or falleth." "What is 
that to thee ; follow thou Me." We may consider the 
exceptions at another time. For the present I note that the 
obedience of Apollos and of the twelve Johnians to the law 
of Christ, was learned in the school of the Baptist. Christ, 
as an Israelite, according to the fiesh, insisted that John 
should baptize Him, because John was then the commissioned 
prophet of God to Israel, while He himself was, in His 
humanity, a circumcised Jew and a " debtor to the Law." 
" Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness y His was a case where the ordinance was 
not needed. Christ could not receive any " remission of 
sins," yet He could honor His Father's law and ordi- 
nances. Therefore John must " suffer it to be so " for 
the time ; and till His ministry was accomplished, Jesus 
thus glorified it. John's disciples were prepared, on these 
principles, to become in due time the discij)les of Christ. 
For it was not a mere question of hearing John Baptist and 
feeling his reproofs, nor even of repenting under them. 
His message from God was, " Repent and be baptized ; " 
for so it is written, " John did baptize in the wilderness, and 
preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." 
And on obedience to this precept hinged some men's 
salvation; for we find " the publicans justified God, being 
baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and 



62' APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves^ 
being not baptized of HimP Is it less perilous to reject 
Christian sacraments and ordinances? Apollos and the 
twelve did not think so, and they obeyed as soon as they 
had heard " the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on 
of hands." Granting, for the sake of argument, that this 
law of the seals of the covenants is the least of the Divine 
precepts, a great blessing attends the observance of it. 
" If a man strive, yet is he not crowned except he strive 
lawfully." Great preachers, who neglect this, may be 
placed very low in the scale of eternal reward. For, again, 
it is written, " Whosoever shall break one of these least 
commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called 
the least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall 
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the 
kingdom of heaven." This last text is connected with a 
reference to the very class that refused " the baptism of 
John." These are all neglected Scriptures, but they are full 
of doctrine for our times. They are liberal toward honest 
mistakes, but they powerfully enforce law. 

4. APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIOIS'S. 

Now as to Divine Law. There is a beautiful economy 
of teaching in the Acts of the Apostles. What happened 
in the case of the twelve Johnians must have happened 
not infrequently in the experiences of St. Paul. Still more 
frequently such cases must have been encountered by the 
Apostle of the Circumcision, St. Peter. But we hear no 
more of them, save only that there was a " doctrine of 
baptisms." From one adjudged case, you know all such 
cases. One spirit of wisdom inspired the Apostles. It is 
incredible that what was " the way of God," at Ephesus, 
was not known as such at Antioch and in Jerusalem. 

Hence this parsimony of details ; the splendid simplicity 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 63 

of the Acts, as addressed to the believers, to whom the sim- 
plest intimation of an apostolic principle is enough. In an 
unbelieving age everything that is not mechanically re- 
corded is doubted, resisted, denied for selfish purposes. I 
assert, however, that what is once recorded is the rule, save 
only when an exceptional case can be proved, as, perhaps, 
in the decree about blood and things strangled. I sayj96r- 
liaps^ however, for I admit that some find here an honest 
difiiculty, which commentators insufficiently meet. The 
plan and nature of this Book of the Acts imply that, as has 
been said, it is nothing less than the Book of the Apostolic 
Constitutions. 

To establish this, we need only recur to the two piers 
on which this glorious arch of apostolic law is reared: 

(1) " Go ye, therefore — ye My Apostles — make disciples 
of all nations, baptizing them, etc. Teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you / " and, 

(2) " The Holy Ghost ^ whom the Father will send in My 
name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance^ whatsoever I have said unto you^ 



5. THE CANOIS^S OP THE SPIRIT. 

Hence the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the teach- 
ing of Apostles as to the way of God, including doctrine 
and discipline, — " all things to be observed." If so, it is the 
teaching of Christ himself, for they were to teach nothing 
but what He had commanded ; and all this He promised 
to bring to their accurate remembrance by the inspira- 
tion of the Holy Ghost. " We have preached the Gospel 
unto you," says St. Peter, " with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven." 

This Book of the Acts is the Gospel of the Holy Ghost : 
it begins with the mission of the Comforter, and records the 
works of the Holy Ghost by the Apostles. This fact 



64: AroLLos : or the way of god. 

gives absolute unity to the whole narrative ; it establishes 
a harmonious system as running through it. That system 
had been gradually unfolded by Christ himself during the 
days of His flesh, and was completed during the forty days 
that He was seen of the Apostles, and was heard of them, 
too, " speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of 
GodP In such a school that sacred college learned " the 
way of God," that is, (l) the doctrine of Christ, and (2) the 
things which Christ had " commanded to he ohservedP This 
accounts for the conduct of that college in the choice of 
Matthias, and for St. Peter's exposition of the hundred and 
ninth Psalm. Fresh from the hearing of these things from 
Christ himself, he was but acting on His instructions ; he 
was but giving Christ's expositions. He made ready for the 
Feast of Pentecost as the Master had appointed, as the 
Psalmist had predicted. Then the Spirit came upon the 
twelve foundations, as before upon the Corner-stone, and 
began to build up the City of God. Among those things 
which he " brought to their remembrance " was this, among 
the rest, which one of them recorded, viz., that Christ had 
said to them, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall 
be loosed in heaven." When they loosed the consciences 
of Jewish Christians from the Ceremonial Law, that whole 
system fell accordingly ; when they established anything, 
or recognized anything, as to he ohserved by Christians, it 
was " bound in heaven ; " and, from first to last, that which 
they agreed to do, or that which they did, in their minis- 
try, is always presumptively the way of God. The formula 
of the history of the Acts, from beginning to end, is that 
of the Council of Jerusalem, — " it seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost and to us." 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 65 



6. UNITY OF APOSTOLIC LAWS. 

Nothing less than this can be admitted by any Christian 
who is not ready to give up the whole principle of Inspi- 
ration, and to accejDt as antagonistic a '' Johnian Chris- 
tianity," and a " Pauline Christianity," a " Petrine Chris- 
tianity," and an "Apollonian Christianity," according to 
the reckless theories of certain moderns, which have been 
so ably refuted, and which, in short, refute themselves. 
Nor does the case of St. Paul introduce anything discord- 
ant in its enlargement of the Apostolic College by the 
introduction of " one born out of due season," and by his 
investiture with absolute equality therein. The same Spirit 
guided him, and gave him, "by revelation," what the 
others only needed to receive by inspired " remembrance." 
The one Spirit that empowered Matthias on the day of 
Pentecost, moved the sacred college to give St. Paul " the 
right hand of fellowship," and to recognize his extraor- 
dinary and gloriously exceptional Apostleship, as received 
directly from Christ. The same principle is to be observed 
in the case of Barnabas. 



7. ST. Paul's gospel. 

Mark, also, the fact that St. Paul was an original Evan- 
gelist, and taught by the same Spirit that moved St. Luke. 
For observe what he says of himself in the matter of the 
Lord's Supi^er : " I have received of the Lord that which 
also I delivered unto you." It seems he had been thus 
instructed minutely hy the Lord as to the facts of the insti- 
tution of that Sacrament. How much this seems to teach 
us of those three years in Arabia, — " Arabia the happy " it 
was then. He also, like the twelve, seems to have had 
three years with Christ. " For I neither received it of man, 

nor was I taught it, hut hy the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

F^ 



66 APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

One almost imagines a heavenly panorama of the life of 
Jesus passing before those unsealed eyes ; as we may sup- 
pose, the Law in its ceremonies, and j)erhaps the Gospel, 
was revealed to Moses on Mount Pisgah. And then we 
have the marvellous intimation : " I knew a man in Christ 
about fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot 
tell, or out of the body I cannot tell ; such an one caught 
up to the third heaven, and how that he was also caught 
up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words." 

Perhaps this was after the stoning at Lystra, when he 
seemed to be dead, and was dragged out of the city as 
such. That stoning must have reminded him of St. Stephen, 
and possibly the beatific vision was then given to him, as 
to the first martyr. Suffering on earth seeming to have 
much connection with rapture into heaven. 

Such was the maxim of Ignatius, " To be with the wild 
beasts is to be with God." So Christ in the wilderness 
" was with the wild beasts, and the angels came." But, be 
this as it may, "the abundance of the revelations" given 
to St. Paul made it impossible for the other Apostles to 
" add anything to him in conference." He was not " a 
whit behind the chiefest of them," and let us note this also, 
"He that wrought effectually in Peter .... the same 
was mighty in me." There was, therefore, only one Gospel 
and one way of God, and whatever he " ordained in the 
Churches " of the Gentiles, that also St. Peter ordained in 
the Churches of the Circumcision, "by the same Spirit." 
And this is very strongly implied when St. Paul speaks of 
all the Apostolic College as one, "made a spectacle to the 
world .... the offscouring of all things," etc., adding at 
the close, " wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me^ 
for I have sent Timotheus who shall bring you into 
remembrance of my ways which he in Christy as I teach 
everyiohere^ in every Church,^'' Can any one suppose that 
" the ways " taught " everywhere, in every Church," were 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 67 

other than those elsewhere taught by other Apostles ? 
Surely, they all taught the same way. Such, then, is " the 
way of God." It is impossible to be a consistent Christian, 
and to deny the unity of the Apostolic system. 



8. APOLLOS obedie:n^t to law. 

If so, let us come back to ApoUos. If it was neces- 
sary for the other Johnians, as we have seen, to receive 
Christian baptism and the laying on of hands, then, by 
inference, their story tells the rest of the story of Apollos. 
What happened to them at Ephesus, ha23pened to him at 
Corinth. The consistency of Scripture with itself, leads us 
to no other natural conjecture but this : that he crossed the 
^gean, and made his way to the Isthmus, by the advice 
of Aquila and Priscilla, who knew what " pastors and 
teachers " remained there to baptize or to lay on their 
hands. 

At all events, somewhere he was baptized into Christ, 
and received the laying on of hands ; and sooner or later 
he must have been ordained, unless he also received some 
miraculous call, of which we know nothing. True, there is 
no account of his ordination in the Acts ; but, if it was the 
Apostolic rule (Acts, xiv. 23) "to ordain elders in every 
Church ; " if Titus was left in Crete for this business, and 
Timothy sent to Ephesus with a like commission, then 
Apollos, we must conclude, received his presbyterate in 
like manner, on the grounds we have already stated, — on 
the grounds of the unity of the Apostolic work, as the 
work of one and the same Spirit. We might fairly urge, 
perhaps, a received interpretation, according to the original^ 
of that significant expression in the close of the chapter, 
"through grace." "He helped, through the grace^ those 
who believed." This grace was the manifold gifts of the 
Spirit; the Divine Charismata which he had lacked at 



68 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

Epliesus. Now, through these Charisms duly received for 
the work of the ministry, he became a great aid to the 
Church, watering what St. Paul had planted, and that as a 
'ininister of the Gospel, for such St. Paul calls him, with 
reference to that very time and place. (I. Cor. iii. 5.) 

9. COEROBORATION^S. 

But some will dispute this. " The fact that nothing ex- 
plicit is said about it proving " — -what ? Argue thus, and 
you make us infer the very reverse of what St. Paul says : 
" God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all 
Churches of the saints." Who can believe less, when St. 
Paul says, " So ordain lin all Churches'''' (I. Cor. vii. 17). 
One law governed all the Churches. Hence arises that very 
omission of <!l.etails which would not be natural if it were 
not a matter of course that all things were done " decently 
and in order!''' Read the history of the Colonial Dioceses 
of the British Empire. A bishop arrives, and is solemnly 
received in his cathedral. We read of it in all the local 
journals ; not a word about his previous consecration in 
England. Why ? That is understood. No need to speak 
of a matter of course. 

But this I am going to argue from Scripture itself. " A 
certain disciple was there — at Lystra — named Timotheus. 
. . . Him would Paul have to go forth with him, and tooh 
and circumcised him!''' Not a word about any ordination, 
- — that was of course ; but this very extraordinary and 
exceptional circumstance of the circumcision — a dead and 
useless ordinance — is mentioned because of its extraordinary 
character, and of the special instruction conveyed by it. 

You don't see it ? You think if there had been any 
ordination it would have been mentioned at this point in 
the story ? Now, on your grounds this is plausible, I admit. 
But you must give up your grounds, for here is a fact you 
have forgotten. 



APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 69 

Long aftenvard, Paul, the aged, did incidentally refer 
to the ordination of .Timothy: thus recording a fact which, 
but for such apparently accidental mention, many would 
not hesitate to deny, simply because they vnll not see the 
unity of Apostolic work, — the order and system of "the 
way of God." Fortunately, therefore, for I speak after the 
manner of men, we chance to have the evidence, in those 
epistles of a later date, that he had even been designated by 
prophecy for his office, and solemnly ordained by St. Paul, 
with a college of presbyters, or a presbytery of Apostles, 
assisting. Not a word of all this in the Acts, although his 
barren circumcision — for other reasons — is so particularly 
recorded. I argue it would be violence to the spirit of the 
Scriptures not to infer as much in the case of Apollos. 
Accept the inference, and all is harmonized ; deny it, there 
is no " order " in the Churches, and God is " the author 
of confusion." Me genoito : God forbid. How could He 
authorize confusion in His own kingdom of heaven on 
earth, if the order that is so conspicuous in the starry 
heavens be indeed a symbol of that which He has estab- 
lished forever in the heaven of heavens, and in all things 
which are His work. 



10. CONSISTENCY. 

If this be conceded, but not otherwise ; if we accept, that 
is to say, the principles on which the baptism and confirma- 
tion of Apollos, and his subsequent ordination, are inferred 
just as we might infer the ordination of Timothy, even if 
St. Paul had not happened (so to speak) to recur to it as a 
well-known fact ; then, but not otherwise, I say, the Book 
of the Acts is a harmonious whole. Not otherwise, for 
then it is but the record of Apostolic eccentricities ; the 
conduct of any particular Apostle teaching nothing but his 
personal, local, and momentary fancies ; the principles laid 



70 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



down in one case as laws, giving us no reason to infer that 
they were the recognized teaching of all the Apostles as to 
the things commanded of Christ, and as such to be observed. 
And, then, what becomes of the baptism of infants ? Many 
other sacred things are overwhelmingly proved by the 
torrent of inferential evidences. No mere isolated text, 
always subject to disputes about interpolation, could bear 
with half the force of the existing argument upon any 
unprejudiced mind. The argument for the Lord's Day as 
the Christian Sabbath ; the proof of its substitution for the 
seventh day, which was not Mosaic, but primitive and Par- 
adisiacal ; these rest, absolutely, on inferences far more bold 
and paradoxical than anything here inferred by me. The 
principle of these inferences, and of the entire harmony of 
the Apostolic system, is vital to Christianity. Expel it, and 
chaos enters. But who that may claim the name of a 
believer can tolerate the idea of such a chaos in anything 
over which the Spirit of God moves on the wings of a 
dove ! Surely, if the Holy Ghost is visible in the Apostolic 
acts, nothing but order and system can be conceived of as 
the fruits of His presence. 



11. THE WAY. 

Even so, from the very beginning. No sooner did the 
Spirit descend upon the orphan Church, than the dry land 
appears, the seas retire, and the new earth is no longer 
without form. " Then they that (1) gladly received His 
Word (2) were baptized, and the same day there were 
added unto them about three thousand souls. And they 
(3) continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and (4) 
Fellowship, and in (5) Breaking of Bread, and in (6) 
Prayers." Here we have instantaneous organization. Faith 
leads to the Baptismal Covenant, and that to steadfast 
communion with the Apostles in their doctrines, and their 



APOLLOS: OB THE WAY OF GOD. 71 

visible unity ; and these are maintained by the common 
Eucharist and the Common Prayers. I give the definite 
article because it is according to the emphatic Greek. 

12. THE EESULT. 

And so we reach the grand system into which ApoUos 
was brought by the teaching of Aquila and Priscilla. 
"The way of God" meant all this; that there was from 
the beginning a recognized system given by Christ, and 
brought into realized form through the Apostles by the 
Holy Ghost, in which "Faith came by hearing, and hearing 
by the Word," and in which " the obedience of Faith " 
implied: (1) Baptism, (2) Apostolic unity in Doctrine, (3) 
Apostolic unity in Fellowship, (4) the Apostolic Eucharist, 
(5) the Apostolic Prayers. And in all this steadfastness 
was required. It was no matter of mere preference, — it 
required principle. 

My plan is to follow out this way, as it is mapped out 
for us in Holy Scripture, and we shall soon find that Apollos 
comes into view again. A sort of parenthetical discussion, 
however, becomes necessary at this stage of our talk, for 
we have already demonstrated more than our age is disposed 
to receive. When the nineteenth century thinks otherwise, 
so much the worse, you know, for Truth and Inspiration, 



V.-DISCORDS. 

1. HEAL THYSELF. 

The men of this age think otherwise. It has been dis- 
covered that unity is not desirable, and that nothing is so 
fine as the idea of " all tastes suited," in religion as in haber- 
dashery. How strange that men should read the Scrip- 
tures, and yet be of such a mind. Wonder not at the su- 
perstitions of the middle ages, for they were not bred of 
enlightened, Bible-reading Christianity. Marvel not at the 
veil on the hearts of Jews. Marvel not at the contradic- 
tions and distorted Scripture texts of Papists. It has been 
left for Protestants, who call themselves Bible-Christians, 
and who boast of the Bible as their religion, their only relig- 
ion, their whole religion ; it has been left for these to con- 
tradict, in the most practical manner, the whole spirit and 
the express letter of God's Word ; to fill the nations with 
jarring, and self-cancelling forms of Christianity; and then, 
to fall in love with this Babel. Yes, they grow rapturous 
over chaos ; they sing hymns and paeans to Discord ; and 
unappalled by growing infidelity, and the aggressions of 
an organized, and hence powerful. Popery, they satisfy 
themselves, by delusive hand-shakings on platforms, for 
the deliberate sacrifice of common faith, common worship, 
common ordinances, and all the organic strength of Apos- 
tolic unity. 

When I look over the melancholy list of American sects, 
beginning with a few strong, respectable, and most zealous 
Christian denominations, and then ravelled out and tattered 

into the most hideous and loathsome heresies and schisms : 

i 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 73 

when I look over this list, and see how the sect spirit, made 
of good repute among Christians of the greater and more 
learned denominations, works itself out into the multiplica- 
tion of ignorant and fanatical bodies, each tending to fur- 
ther division ; when I see this, and the confusions it works 
among the American people, as to the reality of Christianity 
itself, which the masses find so differently represented by 
its professed ministers ; then I am amazed at the apathy of 
all true Christians, and at their apparent acquiescence in a 
state of things so repugnant to the Gospel. Acquiescence ? 
Nay, positive delight in a corrupt and corrosive sectarian- 
ism, which requires a reformation not less real and thor- 
ough than was clamored for by those abuses of the middle 
age to which Wickliffe waked the conscience of a slavish 
generation. 

The primal sin of Rome was that of spiritual adultery^ 
as with the Jewish Church of old ; but the sect-spirit is 
that of spiritual polygamy^ not less hateful to God, and 
not less productive of other evils. The Apostolic Church — 
" My dove. My undefiled, is one." Such is the spirit of the 
Scriptures. The violation of this spirit is schism, and it is 
to be charged with all its consequences, down to infidelity 
and Mormonism, even as we justly lay to the account of 
Rome all the evils that she has brought upon Christendom 
by the reaction of her impostures, including those of secta- 
rianism and the unbelief of nations. 

Oh, for the eye-salve which the good physician j^re- 
scribed to the Laodiceans of old ; those self-satisfied para- 
gons of the popular Christianity of this nineteenth century. 
Truly, if Popery finds its horrible warnings and rebukes in 
the Apocalypse, we may well point out, as not less descrip- 
tive and pertinent to popular Protestantism, the Spirit's 
messages to Laodicea and to Pergamos. 
4 G 



74 APOLLOS: OK THJE WAY OF GOD. 

2. THE SECT CREED. 

From pages of the delusive rhetoric which this piebald 
Christianity sends forth to justify itself, it shall suffice to 
select one example, which I find, at this very moment, 
going the rounds of the popular press. It is a specimen of 
inoculating a patient with his own disease, and coming, as 
it does, from one who is regarded as the very impersonation 
of prcA^alent American ideas in religion, it deserves atten- 
tion. He says : 

" I believe that there ought to he five or six different 
denominations at least. When Von Moltke wished to take 
his men to Sedan, he took them by five different routes, but 
landed them all at Sedan. And so it is with the Lord ; the 
policy is not to make all travel on one road, but the object 
to be attained is the concentration at a single point. Al- 
though unity may be carried to an extreme, within certain 
limits it is both wise and healthful. It is not to be desired 
that there should be absolute organic unity among the 
Christians of the world. The unity that we want is of the 
heart." 

One is forced to exclaim, with the poet, 

" Can aught exult in its deformity ? " 

Where is the text for such a sermon ? The Gospel ac- 
cording to — what Evangelist ? Yet, these are the words of 
a professed Bible-Christian, of a very earnest, conscientious 
man,- — a man of genius, and worthy of the respect which 
is due to sincerity. Only, he has lived in the concentrated 
atmosphere of disunion so long that he is saturated with 
it, and becomes its eulogist, — a genuine Apostle and Evan- 
gelist of Discord. 

Let us imagine this new Evangel to be very logical aiid 
true, as I think I can show it is not. Let us concede that 
it is something superior to the wisdom of the martyr ages, 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 75 

when all were inspired by a zeal for absolute unity in 
Christ, — visible, organic unity. Let us allow this for argu- 
ment's sake, the question still recurs. Is it according to 
Scripture ; is it Christianity ? I shall easily show that, 
however it may be an improvement on Apostles and Evan- 
gelists, it is not the Gospel. 



3. CAPABILITIES OF APOLLOS. 

For, were it so, Aquila and Priscilla merit nothing but 
rebuke for their interference with such a character as Apol- 
los, and St. Paul made a cardinal mistake in reducing the 
other twelve Johnians to Apostolic unity. Was there ever 
so fair an opportunity thrown away ? Here was Apollos, 
the man of men for a new edition of Christianity, and here 
were twelve others, providentially in the same situation 
with him. It is confessed by all, that Apollos was the very 
character to become a representative man. The Alexan- 
drian type of Judaism and of Christianity found its joint 
exemplar in his illustrious person ; and it was soon found 
that he was well adapted to carry away with him very many 
whom St. Paul failed to influence. 

Now, if the Apostles and their early converts had only 
known this Evangel of the nineteenth century, how differ- 
ently the story of Apollos would have read. We forbear 
to travesty the Sacred text, but manifestly the purport of 
the better and wiser Scripture would have some such scope 
as this : 

" Aquila and Priscilla having heard Apollos, and having 
learned of his position as a disciple of John the Baptist, 
persuaded him that it was his duty to form at once a John- 
ian Christianity. St. Paul afterward coming to Ephesus, 
and finding that Providence had opened this door to a 
wider and more liberal state of things, and finding that 
Aquila and Priscilla had joined themselves to Apollos, as 



76 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

co-founders of the new sect, not only congratulated them 
on the movement, but, with characteristic liberality, assisted 
them in giving organization to the new denomination. He 
observed that organization was a good thing for such a 
movement, but must not be general or extensive among 
Christians, as he thought there ought to be Jive or six differ- 
ent denominations at least. He used the words, at least^ 
with emphatic force, looking forward to the day, when, as 
he trusted, there might be five hundred denominations of 
Christians, all beautifully diversified, and constantly spur- 
ring and lashing one another to activity by their liberal 
difierences, and generous strifes, and rivalries, and mutual 
oppositions, not to say antagonisms." 

The actual record, I need not say, is widely difierent, 
and so much the worse it must be in this age for us who 
blindly prefer it. We have conceded, for argument's sake, 
that the Evangel of the Plymouth pulpit is far better ; but, 
we are forced to our conclusion that it is the very reverse of 
what Holy Scripture actually teaches. 

4. OPPOETIJ^nTIES. 

For, again, there was another grand opportunity, — 
another providential occasion for the very thing which is 
recommended by the Plymouth gospel, i, 6., "five or six 
difierent denominations, at least, '^'^ Apollos went to Cor- 
inth, and there he seems very soon to have eclipsed those 
who were in Christ before him. Though he had humbly 
followed the advice of Aquila and Priscilla, and thus had 
been led into the Apostles' fellowship, there soon sprang 
up under his preaching a state of things far more coincident 
with the liberal and party-colored spirit of modern Christi- 
anity. 

The Corinthian Jews, very naturally, leaned rather to 
St. Peter than to St. Paul. They could not readily forget 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 77 

his recreant spirit, as respects his original Pharisaism and 
nationality. The more compliant disposition of Cephas 
led to the formation of a strong Petrine party. Naturally, 
St. Paul had his personal friends and followers, and the 
well-cultured Gentiles of the Corinthian Church could not 
but admire his cosmopolitan genius, so that a respectable 
minority waxed warm in behalf of their favorite Apostle. 

Of the Hellenistic Jews, and of those Greeks who spe- 
cially admired philosophic thought and genuine eloquence, 
a very strong party soon grew up around Apollos, in spite 
of his own narrow-minded unwillingness to lend himself to 
their measures. 

Apollos, indeed, seems to have been unequal to the 
golden opportunity, and to have retired from Corinth at 
this crisis, and even to have put himself under St. Paul's 
influence. (I. Cor. xvi. 12.) 

Things grew still more promising when certain be- 
lievers who had seen Christ in the flesh, and who had been 
baptized with His baptism (St. John, iv. 1-2), began to 
make this advantageous distinction the ground for still 
another party. These parties had not yet ripened into 
their true and proper position of distinctly organized sects ; 
they were only parties as yet, all tending, however, to the 
more liberal and advanced state of Christianity, which, 
owing to long, unenlightened ages, and the lack of the 
printing-press, was, in fact, never fully realized, except 
under the free and intelligent auspices of American, Evan- 
gelical, and Liberal Christianity. 

That this form of Christianity has its Scriptural type, 
however, we may triumphantly assert, when we note that 
the earliest stages of Cliristianity were not unmarked by its 
liberal spirit. Thus, at Corinth, a.d. 58, might be heard, 
on all sides, those incipient and prophetic voices to which 
some score of sweetly-discordant bells give echoes in any 
flourishing American village, on every Sunday morning. 

G* 



78 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

" I am of Paul," sounded one, with deep-toned bell-metal 
sonorousness ; " and I of Cephas," counter-chimed another, 
in a sweetly discrepant key ; " and I of Apollos," was the 
silvery note of another, an octave higher; and "I of 
Christ," in a still higher pitch, was the ring of a fourth. In 
the home of one sister Chloe was a little church, which had 
no such specialty or attraction. Here, then, were the ele- 
ments of at least the five desiderated denominations, which 
nothinoj less than an American villag^e of some live hundred 
inhabitants ever exhibited in all the beauties and charms 
of the full-blown idea. Its germs only can be credited to 
these ancient Corinthians. 

5. ST. Paul's fair chance. 

What a pity that St. Paul failed to take this enlightened 
Tiew of the case as it stood. He had only to claim his dear 
Paulians, as best suited to be influenced by him, and to 
favor the immediate formation of Petrine, Apollonian, Abo- 
riginal Christian, and Chloite denominations, of which the 
seed-principles all so happily existed in Corinth ; he had 
only this to do, and he would have covered himself, in the 
first century and in ancient Greece, with the glory reserved, 
in point of fact, for the nineteenth century, and for the 
great American Republic. Let a man take up a Sunday 
morning herald or Thnes or 'World^ of New York, and 
run his eye along the Sunday notices for " Public Preach- 
ino^," and he will see the beauties of this liberal Christianitv, 
in a charming state of development. Here are to be seen 
the names of " reverend gentlemen " and "reverend ladies," 
of more than twenty different persuasions, each inviting 
the intelligent public to a highly-spiced " bill of fare " for 
the day, all tastes being suited. One is to prove that the 
" Mosaic account of creation is inconsistent with modern 
science ; " another takes a liberal view of the Scriptures, 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 79 

and shows that " they cannot be regarded as strictly in- 
sj)ired ; " another " explodes the painful idea of eternal 
punishment ; " another " objects to the Atonement, on 
Scriptural grounds ; " another " disproves the Trinity ; " 
another enforces the " rights of woman," i. 6., to preach and 
to sit in Congress; another very justly inveighs against 
intemperance ; still another proves " the necessity of immer- 
sion ; " while another proves the necessity of " several new 
varieties " of immersionist denominations ; another demon- 
strates the " infallibility of Pius the Ninth ; " and another 
exhibits the most conclusive evidence of the tolerant, 
pacific, and more than Quaker spirit of Popery, " from the 
days of Innocent III. to those of Queen Mary, Don Philip 
IL, and Antonelli." Among these tokens of progress, a 
few pious Presbyterians, Methodists, and Episcopalians, ex- 
hibit the faint attractions of their best preachers, who hold 
in common to many antiquated and by-gone notions, such 
as " the sanctity of the Lord's Day," the " inspiration of 
the Evangelists," the " Divinity and Atonement of the 
blessed Saviour," and many other unprogressive but entirely 
respectable opinions. These are behind the age. 

All this might have been inaugurated at Corinth in the 
year of Christ 58, if only St. Paul had then seized his 
golden opportunity, and preoccupied the position of " the 
Plymouth pulpit." He might have sent them for insertion 
into their creeds or hymn books, in place of " I believe in 
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church," this beautiful 
form of confession, viz., " I believe that there ought to be 
five or six different denominations, at least." 

6. ST. Paul's mistake. 

Instead of doing this, however, the benighted Apostle, 
not entirely able to persuade himself of the actual state of 
things, much less able to appreciate its glorious advantages, 



80 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

wrote an Epistle to the Corinthians, from which we are 
forced to quote the following (narrow-minded) expressions : 

" Brethren, I exhort you, by the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, to suffer no divisions among you, but to be knit 
together in the same mind, and the same judgment. For 
tidings have been brought to me concerning you, my breth- 
ren, by the members of Chloe's household, whereby I have 
learnt that there are contentions among you. I mean that 
one of you says, I am a follower of Paul ; another, I of 
Apollos ; anotlier, I of Cephas ; another, I of Christ. 

" Is Christ divided ? Was Paul crucified for you ? Or 
were you baptized into the name of Paul ? . . . For while 
you are divided amongst yourselves by jealousy and strife, 
and factious parties, is it not evident that ye are carnal, 
and walking in the common ways of men ? When one 
says, I follow Paul^ and another, I follow Apollos^ can 
you deny that you are carnal? Who, then, is Paul, or who 
is Apollos ? " etc.^ 

From this the Apostle goes on to argue that Christians 
are God's building, having the absolute unity of a material 
fabric, — a favorite figure with him. He also remarks that 
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and 
enjoins every believer " not to make his boast in men ; " 
and then asserts, for the ministers of Christ, one commission 
and one stewardship. Finally, since Apollos was unwilling, 
at that time, to return to his friends at Corinth, as St. 
Paul desired, he sent Timothy to restore all things to unity 
on the ground of his own (St. Paul's own) teaching and ex- 
ample, which he identifies with the way of God : " He shall 
put you in remembrance of the path loherein I walked^ in 
the fellowship of Christ, as I still teach everywhere in all 
the churches." (L Cor. iv. 17.) Compare the original Greek. 

Now, it must be owned that, if St. Paul is to be taken 

* See Conybeare and Howson's translation. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 81 

literally, and without the freedom of interpretation sug- 
gested by modern enlightenment, all this does very much 
clash with modern and, especially, with American ideas. 
I am not denying that the Plymouth Evangel is better ; I 
am only showing that it is not the Evangel of the Apostles 
of Christ. 

7. THE OTHER SIDE. 

For it is not here and there a text, — the rush of Niagara 
to its steep is not more overwhelming than the whole 
current of the New Testament in another direction. 
There are, thank God, a few blessed texts which provide 
for the admitted cases of exception, but such is the torrent 
of Law. Let us examine a few of them, taken almost at 
random: (1) Thus saith the Lord; "There shall be one 
fold and one Shepherd ; " (2) " Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through 
their word ; that they all may be one, . . . that the world 
may believe that Thou has sent Me?"^ 

Thus our Lord makes the manifested unity of believers, 
to the end of time, the condition of missionary success. 
While the Church was one, there was a great triumph " of 
the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism." Ever since 
divisions came in, there is little progress of pure and un- 
defiled religion. 

Nobody denies the necessity of unity ; " But," says the' 

new Evangel, " the unity we want is of the heart ^^"^ What 

does this truism mean ? Heart-unity manifested by actual 

strife, by continual divisions and controversies, kept up at an 

enormous expense of men and treasure, and with the cruel 

result of depriving vast regions of the land of all religious 

teaching ? In a little village of Western New York, on a 

Sunday, lately, might have been seen ^/?y<3 "Evangelical" 

brethren, each one half starved, and preaching each to 

about fifty persons; and I verily believe there was as 
4* 



82 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

much heart-unity among these good men as can pos- 
sibly survive among the bickerings of their flocks : and 
their flocks are as much united, again, as is possible 
where each is forced to fight for the bare existence of his 
favorite denomination in the said village. There is as 
much " unity of heart " among them as poor human nature 
is capable of in the circumstances ; but each of these '' de- 
nominations " begins to feel that what we want is unity of 
faith and worship^ and hence of pocket and of exertion in 
the cause of Christ. Meantime, one of our most respect- 
able denominations reports some ^^jive hundred vacant 
pulpits " in the West ; and there are vast regions in those 
parts absolutely destitute of all preaching. It is commonly 
supposed to be primarily important to set a man in every 
Atlantic- coast village "where other denominations have a 
footing." 

8. CITATIONS. 

Something like organic unity might work better, per- 
haps ; at least, so teaches the New Testament, as follows : 

(1.) 

" Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving 
together for the faith of the Gospel." — Phil. i. 27. 

(2.) 
" Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner- 
stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together grow- 
eth unto an holy temple in the Lord." — Eph, ii. 20. 

(3.) 

" Till we all come in the unity of the faith^ and of the 
knowledge^ of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, etc. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 83 

"That we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and 
carried about with every wind of doctrine, etc. 

" Fitly joined together and compacted by that which 
every joint siipplieth," etc.— j^:>A. iv. 13-16. 

(4-) 
" I hear that there be divisions among you ; and \ partly 
believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, 
that they which are approved may be made manifest among 
you."— Z Cor. xi. 18, 19. 

(5.) 

" Now I beseech you, brethren, marTc them lohich cause 
divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye 
have learned ; and avoid them?'^ — Rom, xvi. 17. 

(6.) 

"For the time will come when they will not endure 
sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts they shall heap to 
themselves teachers^ having itching ears." — II, Tim, iv. 3. 

" Now we command you^ brethren, in the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw y ourselves />'om every 
brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition 
v)hich he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought 
to folloio us'''' (^. 6., "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus.") 
—II, Thess, iii. 6. 

(8.) 
"If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note 
that man^ and have no company with him, that he may be 
ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish 
him as a brother,'^'' — II, Thess, iii. 14-15. 



84: APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

(9.) 

" Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions 
which ye have been taught^ whether hy word^ or our epistle." 
—IL Thess. ii. 15. 

9. A PAUSE. 

Why should I go on ? Must I quote St. Paul's parting 
words to the elders of Ephesus, the half of St. Peter's 
second epistle, and the entire epistle of St. Jude ? Must I 
quote all the Scriptures that reckon schisms and divisions 
among evil works, and works of the devil ? Must I en- 
large on the slighted Scriptures which speak of the " holy- 
kiss," the mutual " foot- washing," the one Baptism, and 
the one Bread, which are insisted on as pledges of " abso- 
lute organic unity," and which no ingenuity can reconcile 
with the actual condition of things, nor even with "the 
five or six denominations, at least," which are so much 
desired and commended by the new Evangel ? 

Nay, I will rest here for the time, only remarking that 
not yet do I pronounce the popular ideas unwise. I still 
concede that they may be, for aught I have urged, vastly 
wiser than the Apostles, and greatly superior to the 
doctrines, generally, of the New Testament. Only this I 
affirm to be proven, viz., there is no harmonizing the two 
classes of ideas. If the nineteenth-century ideas are right, 
then "the everlasting Gospel" is all wrong. If, on the 
other hand, the New Testament is law, then — " physician 
teal thyself." Let popular Evangelical Christianity take 
itself in hand, and first find out a way to reconcile these 
differences, returning to " first works," and " remembering 
from whence they are fallen." Then let them send the 
Gospel to the heathen, with no " uncertain sound," and re- 
buke the Apostate Papacy and popular infidelity with a 
voice of authority, and " not as the scribes." 



APOLLOS: OR THE- WAY OF GOD. 85 



10. DEMURRER. 

For the sake of the argument, I say, I have so far 
allowed that the views I am reviewing are better than the 
Gospel, — a genuine nineteenth-century discovery, eclips- 
ing the Bible itself. But does this concession hold good 
in point of fact? Is this wisdom of man, after all, wiser 
than " the foolishness of God ? " May not God, after all, 
understand His own plan, and the ultimate good of keeping 
His way, better than any man can understand the ten- 
dencies of his OAvn wisest counsels ? And, granting that 
the Gospel is His gift to the world, may not its ultimate re- 
alization of His designs depend on our keeping to His ideas, 
and allowing Him to work out His own w^isdom by our 
simple obedience ? I concede, still, that there is much to 
be said, from man's side, and from an American's stand- 
point, in favor of this novel Evangel. It takes a kind 
view of existing difficulties, and proposes mutual toleration 
on terms very flattering to personal feeling. But what if 
we put ourselves into the Divine stand-point, and agree to 
argue from the positions He has prescribed ? Then it will 
be wdser to admit the enormous evil of the existing chaos ; 
to assert that what God commands He is able to effect, and 
to live and labor accordingly, " speaking the truth in love," 
and leaving it to His Holy Spirit to restore, in His oion 
time and way^ the unity and efficiency and force which 
belonged to His Primitive Church. 

11. ELASTICITY. 

Let us recall, then, the full-blown results to which w^e 

are invited by the popular Evangel. Instead of, " I believe 

in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church," we have it 

thus stated: "I believe that there ought to be five or six 

different denominations, at leastP We have seen that it 

H 



86 APOLLOS: OR TUE WAY OF GOD. 

was not so said by the Author of Christianity, nor did it 
thus strike any of His Apostles. They taught the very 
reverse ; they nipped sectarianism in its first germs and 
elements, and taught unity, — absolute, organic unity, " by 
the Holy Ghost," with all the force of example, doctrine, 
entreaty, alarm, and warning. 

But let us look at it from the side of plain common-sense. 
" Five or six, at least." Every believer in this Evangel is 
willing that there should be a limited number of such 
denominations, each measurably consistent with his own 
views. Beyond that, even he advises us not to subdivide 
and mince the common inheritance. But why not ? Why 
limit an elastic principle ? Why " five or six ? " and if " at 
least" be the phrase, then why not five times that number 
as the maxitnicm ? We reach (l) a minimum of six ; why 
not (2) a m^aximum of fifty ? More than fifty actually exist 
among us. But, rather, why stop there? Admit the 
principle, — who shall stop it ? The horse liked the man on 
his back while he was, running down the stag; but he 
wished the principle to be checked, as soon as the man 
turned him into the stable, to be his servant. So we like 
the principle of six or fifty sects, because we fancy we can 
manage so many, and we may use them against our pet 
aversions; but when everybody claims a right to set his 
'maximum,^ and to carry the principle to its infinite series 
of natural and logical consequences, oh, then, " we must 
put an end to this business." The reductio ad absurdum^ is 
soon reached. 

12. HOW SECTS origi:n^ate. 

All seems well enough, while only educated and learned 
gentlemen adopt this principle of divisions in behalf of 
sober and well-established systems. But there are millions 
of souls in the American Republic who dislike learning 
and education, and who prefer that pastors or teachers 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 87 

should be just like themselves. Consequently, " I believe in 
five or six denominations, at least ^^"^ is a creed that just suits 
the purposes of a "Joe Smith," or a " Brigham Young," 
for they can take advantage of it to start each his own 
sect ; and once started, it may become as exclusive as the 
respectable denomination of Baptists, nay, as Popery itself, 
without forfeiting its right to recognition under the general 
principle. True, " Joe Smith " gives us an extreme exam- 
ple ; but doubtless there may be more decent systems 
founded on " Joe Smith's " principle, which is precisely that 
of the creed I have quoted. Let us see how the principle 
works among more respectable people of the ignorant 
class. I shall quote a most worthy and unimpeachable 
authority, — the lamented Dr. Thomson, lately deceased, a 
Methodist bishop^ who deserves the most respectful con- 
sideration and remembrance. He shows us how sects 
originate, and how " ministers of the Gospel " are multi- 
plied in this our enlightened Republic. Here is his testi- 
mony : 

" Most of the brethren of the Lexington Conference, if 
not all, were, before the war, slaves. It is remarkable 
what improvement they have made. Most of them can 
read, many can write, though some still make their mark. 
One presiding elder signs only his initials ^ placing them 
horizontally and inverting the proper order. The bishop, 
in his address, having cautioned them against using words 
they do not* understand, and advised them to look at every 
word in the dictionary before using it, unless they were 
quite sure of it, was told that they had no dictionaries ; did 
not know where to get them, and would not 'know how to 
use them if they had them, 

" The poor whites, especially in the mountain regions, 
are nearly as uneducated as the negroes. I saw a petition 
at the Kentucky Conference as bad, even worse, than any 
document presented at the colored Conference. Yet, strange 



88 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

to say, the presiding elder said it was his opinion that 
the man was 7iot only an official ^nemher of the Churchy but 
a schoolmaster. Many of the people there can neither read 
nor write. The preachers of that section are generally 0/ 
the hard-shell variety. They wear a striped vest, use a 
nasal tone, and boast of their ignorance. One said, lately : 
'I am too ignorant to lead you astray. I don't use no dic- 
tionary words. I simply mulligate the Gospel.' One of 
our own men wanted to preach. The circuit preacher and 
elder thought him too ignorant. He went to the circuit 
judge to obtain license, who, smiling, said: ^I have no 
authority to license you to preach.' He then went to the 
prosecuting attorney, who^ being a great joJcer^ told him to 
go to a certain Baptist deacon who had lived long in the 
neighborhood, and, in the presence of witnesses, demand 
license three times. If, then, he was denied, he might or- 
ganize himself into a Churchy and license himself ' That,' 
said he, 'is the law.' He followed the attorney's advice, 
and, stranger still, has a few folloioers. Is not this inde- 
pendency ? But how 7nany of our Churches have had so7ne 
such origin ! " 

It seems the young lawyer, whose advice was taken in 
this case, was " a great joker." But good Dr. Thomson 
thinks that not a few of ''our Churches have had some 
such origin." If so, the/o^'6 is a very practical and serious 
one. " That," said he, "is the law ; " and was he not right ? 
Is not any man who can get a few followers to recognize 
him as a " minister of the Gospel," entitled to such a dig- 
nity '? And how are the poor, ignorant people to be saved 
from the ravages of wolves, who find it so easy to put on 
sheep's clothing? This degrading, confounding, destruc- 
tive work all begins with the creed ol the respectable and 
worthy men, who say before their countrymen, "I believe 
that there ought to be five or six different denominations, 
at least ^"^ 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 89 



13. THE DOGMA IN PRACTICE. 

And our countrymen lay this creed to heart, very prac- 
tically. Beginning with " the five or six denominations," 
they practise subdivision with extreme facility. I take the 
following list from an excellent popular almanac : 

1. ArRiCA:N'. — (a) Methodist Episcopal Church, (b) Meth- 
odist Episcopal Zion Church. 

2. Baptists. — (a) Regular, (b) Anti-mission, (c) Sev- 
enth-day, (d) Six-principle, (e) Free-will, (f) River-brethren, 
(g) Winebrennians, (h) Dunkers, (i) Mennonites, (j) Camp- 
ellites. 

8. Christian Connection. 

4. CoNGREGATiONALiSTS. — (a) Orthodox, (b) Unitarian. 

5. Friends. — (a) Orthodox, (b) Hick^ite. 

6. German. — (a) Evangelical Union, (b) Reformed. 
Y. Lutherans. 

8. Methodists. — (a) Episcopal, (b) Church South, (c) 
Protestant, (d) Evangelical Association, (e) Wesleyan, (f) 
Free, (g) Independent, (h) Central, (i) Primitive. 

9. Mormons. 

10. Presbyterians. — (a) Old and New, (b) Cumberland, 
(c) Reformed, (d) Reformed Synod, (e) United, (f) United 
Synod, (g) South, (h) Associate Synod, (i) Associate Re- 
formed of New York, (j) Associate Reformed of the South, 
(k) Free Presbyterian Synod, (1) Independent Presbyterian, 
(m) Reformed (Dutch). 

11. Second Adventists. 

12. Shakers. 

13. Savedenborgians. 

14. United Brethren in Christ. 

15. Universalists. 

This, however, is only the list of the more noted denom- 
inationg, all of which hold to the popular idea of human 



90 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY 0¥ GOD. 

organizations of Christianity. These all oppose the idea 
of 07ie, historic^ continuous^ visible^ Apostolic Church of 
Christ ; which never can perish, and to which everybody 
ought to belong ; and of which everybody baptized into 
Christ is, in fact, a member by baptism, even though he be 
not so by practical adhesion. Those who are familiar with 
the religious history and literature of England in the sev- 
enteenth century need hardly be reminded of the awful 
testimony of Edwards, the Presbyterian, as to the errors 
vented and acted there, in the years subsequent to the 
triumph of the Independents. In his unsavory " Gangrsena " 
he reduces the chaos to sixteen elemental forms, which he 
enumerates as "Brownists, Chiliasts, Antinomians, Ana- 
baptists, Manifestarians, Libertines, Familists, Enthusiasts, 
Seekers and Waiters, Perfectists, Socinians, Arians, Anti- 
Trinitarians, Anti-Scripturists, Sceptics, and Questionists." 
Everybody who is familiar with our own country districts, 
and with Western communities, knows that almost every 
village boasts of its own variety, under similar heads, so 
that we come down to the last stages of the gangrene in 
the endless variety of " Hard-shell," " Soft-shell," " Mug- 
gletonian," " Smithite," " Jonesite," and " Robinsonite,'^ 
communities, which disfigure our religious nationality, and 
bring contempt upon the Christian name. One feels a sort 
of degradation in reading such a record of the ultimate 
decay in which the Christian name may be found dissolv- 
ing, putrefying, and perishing. 

14. HOW IT WORKS. 

The result is, there are scores of villages, even in the old 
State of New York, in which no religious rites are main- 
tained. I have seen villages with five separate places of 
worship, not one of which was opened on Sundays with any 
regularity. The entire village was able to support one 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 91 

respectable pastor. One respectable pastor was equal to 
the charge of the village. Even if five had been supported 
there, /bz^r supernumerary preachers would have been sub- 
tracted from destitute regions and maintained at a useless 
expense, merely to illustrate the beauties of the Creed 
which begins with, " I believe there should be five or six 
diflerent denominations, at least." 

I forbear to enlarge, on divers considerations which must 
here suggest themselves to every pastor of a Christian 
flock, as to the effect of all this on the practical piety of 
the people. But I mention one important matter which all 
good men must feel, — the utter destruction of discipline. 
"What does it signify that the good pastor of this or that 
congregation is resolved to exercise the discij^line of his 
standards against Mr. Brown or Mrs. Smith ? They " take 
a pew " across the street, in the " Independent Heterodox 
Church," and "are as good as anybody." With them they 
take their unoffending children, who grow up accordingly 
in these strange paths, and lose all their early promise and 
knowledge of God's Word. This case will be recognized as 
one of soul- sickening experience by every pious minister, 
of whatever " evangelical " denomination. But it is part 
of the blessings that come of the Plymouth Creed, and its 
differences with the IsTicene. 

This Creed may be further illustrated by the statistical 
facts touching educated ministers of these five or six lib- 
erally-supported denominations. Of eight New England 
colleges, the facts are said to prove that the percentage of 
graduates entering these ministries has declined, in fifty 
years preceding 1 865, from thirty per cent, to eighteen per 
cent. ; and the late statistics of Western colleges are much 
more alarming. Now, if " five or six denominations " must 
be kept up, and if thirty or forty more will claim an equal 
right to be kept up, how are forty millions of x\jiiericans to 
be provided for ? 



92 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 



15. HUMILIATIONS. 

The dreadful degradation of the name and office of a 
" minister of the Gospel," which is the result, has an in- 
credibly confounding effect on the masses. It is very hon- 
orable to many of our railway and steamboat companies 
that they are disposed to carry to and fro, freely or at half- 
fare, any " minister of the Gospel." But I am informed 
that the class of men who present credentials, of divers 
sorts, to claim the privilege, is very large, and illustrates 
the religious condition of the land in a shameful manner. 
These credentials vary in character and kind, from the cer- 
tificate of the county-clerk, the wearing of a white necker- 
chief, the certified vote of an assembly of tJniversalists, or 
'' come-outers," the sign-manual of '^ Brigham Young," and 
the like, up to academic degrees, or the exhibition of a 
visiting card with the prefix " Reverend," or the suffix of an 
honorary doctorate. When the claim to be a " ininister of 
Christ " is thus debased and run into the ground, how can 
the people be expected to attach any respect to it ? It is, 
in fact, regarded with no little contempt, except where per- 
sonal considerations redeem it from scorn, in individual 
cases. But these considerations, being those of " professional 
eminence " merely, may invest the pastor of an infidel tab- 
ernacle with far more of prestige and presumed authority 
than would be accorded to a majority of the pious and de- 
voted ministers of evangelical sects. The blasphemies of 
a Theodore Parker, and the pious utterances of a Summer- 
field, come before the public alike as the sermons of Chris- 
tian ministers. Let all good men reflect on the unspeakable 
mischiefs which must result from such imjDressions, daily 
communicated by the press, to sharp-witted and sceptical 
millions, who know little or nothing of genuine Christianity. 
Two parties only are the gainers, — (1) that of unbeliefs in 



APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 93 

its thousand forms, and (2), by reactionary processes, that 
of credulity^ in its Popish and fanatical varieties. 

There are large districts, and almost whole counties, 
even in the older States, which show the consequences 
already. Thousands of our population are enrolled in no 
religious denomination, and their children are growing up in 
a paganism of the most practical sort. They know enough 
of Christianity to be profane beyond all example ; their 
only prayers are oaths and curses. Few are aware that 
even in this State of New York, in the neighborhood of 
populous cities, and actually in sight of their steeples, 
communities of unevangelized heathen (Indians) still exist, 
after a century of intercourse with the whites, and while 
we are sending missionaries to the ends of the earth. What 
it costs us to sustain the mere diversities of five or six dif- 
ferent denominations of evangelical Christians, all loving 
the same Saviour and reading the same Bible, drains the 
resources of home evangelization, and leaves the poor and 
needy with nobody to care for their souls. 

16. THE illustratio:n'. 

In view of these facts, I am very thankful for the illus- 
tration suggested by the popular authority I have quoted, — 
" Moltke and Sedan." It seems to me to force a conclusion 
the very reverse of that which it was designed to suggest. 
" Sedan," in our case, is the fearful unbelief and ignorance 
of God, which we find entrenched, and every day fortifying 
itself, in the popular miiid of America. On this it is neces- 
sary to concentrate one army, directed by one Spirit, organ- 
ized on one plan, guided by leaders acting in perfect har- 
mony, and never turning their arms one against another. 
They may move in five ways, or in five hundred, so long as 
they are all moved on one plan and have but the one object, — 
to carry out that plan and subdue the common enemy, the 



94 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

enemy of Christ our King. This is precisely what I am 
urging in these essays ; this is precisely what the Apostles 
teach us ; this is what the Great Captain of our salvation 
teaches ; and I fail to discover in Moltke's ideas of a cam- 
paign anything whatever to sustain the wisdom of the new 
creed, which would have us believe in " five or six different 
denominations, at least." 

17. WHAT MOLTKE SHOULD HAVE SAID. 

To gain any support for such a creed from Moltke's tac- 
tics, it would be necessary to show, not that he moved his 
one army in five different ways upon Sedan, but that he 
acted somewhat as follows. Let us suppose he had said, 
before crossing the Rhine, to his brave men in arms, " Sol- 
diers, we are acting on a very false system of war. I ob- 
serve you all seem to be thoroughly organized as one grand 
army, and that you are anxious to preserve, however you 
may be distributed in various corps, one discipline, one 
common plan of campaign, and one recognized system of 
drill, of instructions, of subordination, and of organic force. 
All this is mere delusion. You have different tastes, and 
are intelligent enough to have each your own ideas of what 
it is best to do. Break up, then, this vast clumsy organi- 
zation, and let us have, at least, five or six different armies, 
each pursuing its own ways, and occasionally firing into 
each other, or pausing for skirmishes between different gen- 
erals. If these skirmishes should produce subdivisions, and 
end in producing thirty or forty armies and guerilla gangs, 
obviously, we should all be the stronger. We want noth- 
ing but unity of heart. Be good Germans, and act for the 
one object of humbling the enemies of Fatherland. Yes, I 
hear your cheers. Your hearts are all right ; now then, 
break up into your several gangs, act with your favorite 
officers ; agree to differ ; scatter, scatter, scatter ! That 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 95 

is the best plan, if the heart is only true to the cause. Be 
sure to shake hands with one another before and after a 
free fight among yourselves ; then keep to your personal 
ideas of a campaign, and follow no leader that will not 
gratify these convictions. This will insure success. Huz- 
zah, boys ! Now, begone. licit er- shelter ! be your war 
cry." 

Had Moltke sent his brave Prussians across the Rhine 
on such a plan of operations, and had Sedan fallen in con- 
sequence of such advice, the illustration aforesaid, which 
seems to be so much admired by popular religionists, would 
undoubtedly have a just claim on our further consideration ; 
especially if it could be harmonized with the marching or- 
ders of the Great Captain of Salvation, as given in the New 
Testament. 



18. OI^E EEFRAIN TO MAI^Y RECITATIVES. 

It required unquestionable genius to furnish an illustra- 
tion so original ; but the old stock argument is, after all, 
quite as happy in its conception. "If we only get to 
heaven," says a dear old lady, in her arm-chair, her face 
beaming with real good-nature and kindly Christian feel- 
ing, which we would not rudely violate for the world : '' if 
we only get to heaven, it will never be asked by what road 
we came." 

I have no doubt that this is a prophecy which may be 
relied on ; but, as it is practically used, it is almost need- 
less to say that it involves fallacies the most monstrous, and 
such as no Christian can admit. (1) It is used by the 
venerable old lady aforesaid, as a harmless expression of 
downright goodness, and it means, with her, nothing more, 
nothing less. She is just as much convinced after saying it, 
as she was before, that her own way is the true way, and 
that all who are out of it are "in a parlous state." She 



96 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

prays for them with true Christian charity ; the burden of 
the prayer being that they may all read the Bible through 
her glasses. (2) But it is also used by tramps and beg- 
gars generally; and by those who are "of no religion in 
particular," but who are willing to ask a minister of any 
denomination for means to go to a remote town by railway, 
" the money to be sent back by next post." I have often 
heard this pious sentiment from such persons; in fact, have 
become familiar with it in such conversations. (3) A good 
woman, of Celtic features and dialect, who admitted she 
was "not a Prodeshan," but who had no more objection to 
my money than to her own priest's (which, she allowed, 
she never was so lucky as to see, except in transition from 
her own palm to his), once expressed the same pious senti- 
ment with an unction of special toleration. But I thought 
I detected an expression of Tipperary cunning about the 
eye, as she pronounced the words, " If we only get to 
heaven." This was the saving clause with her, no doubt ; 
but it touches at least the question which may be fatal to 
the whole maxim. (4) This is the one expression of piety 
to which old hardened sinners melt down at funerals, and 
in other circumstances of affliction. They profess a great 
"respect for religion;" they are too charitable, however, 
to have any preferences ; they are so full of love to God 
and man, that they would just as lief call on you as on any 
other minister to drive five miles through a snow-storm, at 
your own charges, to bury a favorite child. They are in 
favor of all denominations. They spend Sundays at home, 
reading the newspapers, " because a man can be just as 
good a man in his own house as in a church." He don't 
profess any religion, " but he is better, perhaps, than some 
that do ; " and "if we only get to heaven," etc. He ends 
with the same pious formula. (5) It is supposed to be a 
favorite stereotyped form in printing offices, as it comes in 
so often in obituary comments on good citizens, who have 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 97 

"never joined any denomination, but who," etc. (6) It is 
a hack sentiment of those who do not mean to pass for in- 
fidels, but who are always found on the side of the devil, 
and who, such being their creed, are wont to follow it up 
with Alexander Pope's Te Deum^ — 

" By saint, by savage, and by sage, 
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." 

We have had some very pretty poetry lately travelling 
through the land, and meeting with universal favor, which 
extends this sentiment in favor of the Veda and Shaster, 
as genuine Bibles of humanity, and which allows " Jesus," 
reduced to a common name, a place with Confucius and 
Zoroaster. 

And, (7) we grieve to say, dropping other uses of the 
proverb, the same phrases are often heard from the lips of 
pious, thoughtful, earnest followers of Christ, who really 
mean by it something " lovely and of good report." Yet 
the crowd who hear it understand it otherwise. " Black is 
not very black, nor white very white ; " truth is not very 
true, nor falsehood very false. " No matter what one be- 
lieves, if only the heart is right," is the inference ; and 
what thing that is evil is not sheltered and nurtured under 
this miserable fallacy ? It is only Pope's popular nonsense 
over again, — 

" He can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 

True enough ; but, need we suggest that the whole 
question lies in what is assumed ? Whose life can be in the 
right, who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, 
who refuses to confess His name before men, and in whose 
heart are none of His ways ? And how many a poor, half- 
instructed believer is right so far, and hence, safe for him- 
self; while, after all, he is all wrong as to his entire tcork ; 
building " wood, hay, and stubble," which must be so much 
5 I 



98 APOLLOS : OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

loss in the day when it is tried by fire ? He builded on the 
foundation ; but his work was not such as to endure, or to 
build up permanent Christianity for others after hirn. 



19. AIS- INQUIRY. 

Millions of our countrymen are, just now, adopting for 
time and eternity a thousand sinful courses, in opinion and 
practice, on this current fallacy. It just suits the human 
heart in its lawlessness and indifierence to truth. Is it not 
time for truth's friends and allies to expose the manifold 
absurdities which it involves, and to come out on St. Paul's 
positive ground, — "If an angel from heaven preach any 
other Gospel than that ye have received, let him be an- 
athema?" Is it not time for true servants of God to occupy 
precisely such ground as did the beloved disciple, when he 
said — with nothing but love in his heart — " We are of God. 
He that knoweth God, heareth us ; he that is not of God, 
heareth not us ; hereby know we the spirit of truth and 
the spirit of error ? " 

Between this sound, candid. Apostolic defence of known 
truth, and of a definite doctrine of salvation ; between this 
" speaking the truth in love," and the platitudes of modern 
" agreements to difier," — what a difference ! Further, I 
must ask, does not any one see an underlying fallacy of yet 
more egregious absurdity ? " If we all get to heaven," etc. 
It implies that such is the probable result of the present 
state of things. But the palpable answer is, we are not 
concerned for the thousands of pious people who may be 
saved — some in one way, and some in another — some " so 
as by fire," but yet saved through faith in Christ ; we are 
concerned for millions who are not touched by these thou- 
sands, but who are disgusted and repelled by them, just be- 
cause they cannot unite in showing them " the way of God." 
The question is as to unbelievers ; the millions of semi- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 99 

infidels in America, and of heathen abroad, who are almost 
excusable for the position they practically occupy : " We 
will hear you when you can agree among yourselves ; we 
have uo time to examine all your different creeds." 

20. THE GRAS^D IDEA. 

Finally, the creed we have quoted ends in another bril- 
liant generality, — "The unity we want is of the heart." 
Nothing can be more true ; but what good does heart-unity 
accomplish, if it crops out in maintaining and perpetuating 
these costly and desiccating and internecine practical dis- 
agreements ? What family could substitute such a plati- 
tude for the sweet subordination established by God in the 
relations of children to parents, and for the practical unities 
between brothers and sisters growing out of such subordi- 
nation to a common law of loving obedience ? Heart-unity 
is a rhetorical nonentity unless it means hand-unity and 
cooperative unity like that of the Primitive Christians, 
who were of "one heart and one mind," and who 'lifted 
up their voice with one accord," and who "came together 
into one place," and for one purpose, and whose heart-unity 
meant " one Lord, one faith, one baptism," and " no divi- 
sions." 

I could point out many villages which have made hon- 
est efforts, at times, to establish heart-unity in connection 
with a deep, underlying sense of the importance of keeping 
up every man his own way, and stopping the moment that 
heart-unity began to interfere with conscientious self and 
the predominance of self s chosen congregation. The re- 
sult might be stated as not entirely successful, and would 
probably be described as follows, by the leading and res- 
ponsible parties in each of "the five or six denominations" 
struggling for existence among a population of not more 
than three hundred householders, poor and prosperous to- 



100 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

gether. The report would be, I say, somewhat as follows : 
" We are all of one heart in this village. Of course, true 
Christians can't be otherwise. But each of us, you know, 
must keep up his own preaching, and we have such honor- 
able rivalries that each is obliged to outdo his neighbor, if 
possible, in furnishing, and organs, and bells, and steeples, 
and fire, and lights, and especially in eloquent sermons. 
We must support our own newspapers, and ' Boards of 
Missions,' and ' Tract Societies,' and whole armies of ' sec- 
retaries ' and ' agents ' to carry them on ; and, altogether, 
it ends in having no settled minister in the place. We are 
all one in heart, but the necessities of the case beget differ- 
ences between families and quarrels among neighbors. Our 
little community is divided up into very uncomfortable 
parties, and each congregation breeds cliques and factions, 
as one or another family feels imposed upon in the struggle 
for support. Good ministers can't stay long in any congre- 
gation, without taking sides. Even the village school- 
master, to keep his place, must be of ' no particular relig- 
ion ; ' and it must be owned the ungodly seem to have 
some truth on their side, when they say, ' See how these 
Christians hate one another.' " 

When I lived in a very large city, I had no idea of this 
state of things ; but my missionary experiences have taught 
me that it is the curse of all our rural districts, and is de- 
stroying the religious and social life of the land ; yes, and 
even our civilization. And how can it be cured, when the 
cleverest and best men in the popular pulpit tell their coun- 
trymen that these things ought to be, and that " five or six 
denominations " are the least that ought to be thought of, 
for the good of souls and the cause of Christ ? 

Everybody who was young some thirty years ago, must 
remember a story which was in our popular school-books, 
about a poor fellow falling in the streets on a Sunday morn- 
ing. The good people, on their way to their divers places 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 101 

of worship, stopped and ran to bis assistance. One dashed 
water into his face, another applied a smelling-bottle, 
another consoled the child of the unfortunate sufferer, 
another flew for the doctor, etc. These all represented 
divers sects and religions ; and in this law of kindness and 
morality, said the story, " all Christians agree." This was, 
and is, accepted as a triumphant statement of Christian 
unity. But this mere humanity of instinct and social de- 
cency, good as far as it goes, is it the way of God ? St. Paul 
says, rather, " We being many are one bread, and one body: 
for we are all partakers of that one bread ; " and, again, 
" By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, and 
have all been made to drink into one Spirit." 



I* 



VI.-HALYES. : 

1. THE BELIEVING SPIRIT. 

When I compare the believing spirit which the Prayer 
Book everywhere breathes and reproduces, with the spirit 
of this world, which now operates in the popular religion- 
ism of this country, I am moved with love to God that He 
has graciously preserved to us a historic Church, with its 
ancient Liturgy, and with Apostolic formularies of child- 
like faith. Often, indeed, do I find my own want of faith 
rebuked by the loving acceptance with which the dear 
Church, in her worship, receives great mysteries, and 

" — delightedly believes divinities. 
Being herself divine." 

Hers is, indeed, the spirit of the Holy Mary, confounded 
by the overwhelming intimations of the Angel, but sweetly 
acquiescing, with only a momentary conflict against faith- 
lessness : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto 
me according to Thy Word. 



?5 



2. UNBELIEF. 

Widely different is all this from the spirit which ac- 
cepts what God has not revealed, and deceives itself, in a 
"voluntary humility," by adopting impossibilities of its 
own creation, and crediting monstrous things without evi- 
dence. Yet, it is not less different from that doubting dis- 
position which for a time disgraced St. Thomas, and grieved 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 103 

his Saviour. This is the spirit of popular piety. It would 
gape on the wounds of the crucified, and reopen them by 
a cruel and carnal experiment. It would probe with an 
exploring finger hardly less grievous to be borne than the 
nails ; hardly less tolerable, I say, than the spikes and the 
spear, to Him who bids us be as little children, when He 
speaks, or when He sends His testimony. It is because of 
a predominance of this coarse, inquisitive sensualism that 
the popular piety is disappearing. Among thousands of 
our nominal Christians, there remains little of the Gospel 
except its humanity and outward morality. This is a fra- 
grant flower, but not well-rooted and grounded, and it must 
soon be succeeded by a profuse crop of thorns and nettles. 
Many good men, in the spirit of doubting Thomas, are now 
sowing broadcast the seeds of such a harvest, from worldly 
tribunes, which can hardly be called pulpits in any sense. 
Sad consequences follow, as in Holland and Germany, for 
God is faithful to His own way, and to those who keep it. 
He will accept the faith and love of pious men wherever 
it is to be found ; but He gives it only to His Church to 
survive the changing forms and fashions of popular thought, 
and to be always His Bride, and the echo of His own voice 
to the world. 

3. THE SOURCE OF UI^BELIEF. 

The Socinian is blind to the many Scriptures Avhich con- 
tradict his awful heresy ; but he amuses himself and his 
audiences with those which seem to favor it, and many such 
there are. He lives on half-truths, and not believing the 
two natures in Christ, he enlarges upon the human half, and 
simply rejects the other half. Both halves are united and 
harmonized when one accepts the Nicene Creed. That 
creed may appear mysterious and complicate ; but, it is 
like an elaborate key. Try it ; and if it unlocks the Scrip- 
tures, as it does infallibly, then its value is demonstrated. 



104 APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

But the Socinian is taught to dishonor the Bridegroom 
by the very habit of mind which was formed in the Puri- 
tanism which begat him. It pursued the very same course 
with the Bride. The Puritan accepts much that is said of 
the spiritual and invisible domain of the Church, which is 
the Communion of Saints, and which God's eye alone ex- 
plores, so as to " know them that are His." But all that 
system of the visible Church militant, which is to the spir- 
itual realm what the body is to the soul, he absolutely 
rejects. He does not see the necessity of sacraments, and 
of a sacred ministry separated to the work of the Gospel ; 
divinely commissioned as ambassadors, and as " stewards 
of the mysteries." Hence, he cuts out of his Bible a grand 
system of texts ajid the truth enshrined therein, as Luther 
rejected the Epistle of St. James, simply because he could 
not reconcile it with his views of the Epistle of St. Paul to 
the Galatians. 1 call the attention of pious men to this 
startling fact : the fact that while a historic Church, as the 
Prayer Book testifies, has a use and a practical love for all 
Scriptures, this popular system practically discards no small 
part of God's Word. 

4. TEXTS DISCARDED. 

As for most of these neglected texts, it is too little to 
say that they have lost all their power in the hearts and 
consciences of sectarian Christians. In point of fact, they 
never make any positive use of them. Negatively, they 
can discuss them ; they can show what such texts do not 
'inean ; they can prove that Rome abuses such texts, and 
presumes to give them a meaning most unnatural and de- 
structive to souls. All this is true, and yet the fact remains 
before the popular mind that Rome does attach some sense 
to these texts, and does make constant use of them, whereas, 
popular Christianity merely gets rid ol them, has no use at 
all for them, and gives them no place in its work. The 



APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 105 

world feels that sectarianism secretly regrets that such 
texts are in the Bible ; that, at heart, it would be glad to 
get rid of them. And is it not true that thousands of those 
educated by inorganic Christianity wonder, in their hearts, 
that Christ is the author of such sayings, and that He 
gave to men words which it is so very easy to abuse ? Let 
this question be looked at. It suggests a great deal. 

Yes, it is very easy to abuse these sayings, and He who 
gave them knew that bad men would abuse them, handle 
them deceitfully, and turn them to the ruin of souls. He 
knew that " the mystery of iniquity " did already work, 
and He knew how " that lawless one " would turn all these 
blessed words to poison and to blasphemy. Yet He gave 
these sayings^ nevertheless. He gave them as He gave the 
tree of knowledge to Eden. The paradise of His Church 
is full of trees for food ; but it is not without its perilous 
fruit, and they that will trespass may do so. I argue that 
what He gave, in full view of such perils, has a most im- 
portant place in the true system of His Gospel. " God's 
ways are not our ways;" but let us keej) "the way of 
God," not doubting that He is wise and good and holy, 
and will in the end vindicate His own wisdom and His 
mercy too. 

5. NEED OF MORE FAITH. 

Well may one marvel that the school in our own com- 
munion which dwells so much, so justly, and so richly on 
the necessity of faith, has, so often, failed in all these tests 
of the believing spirit to exercise faith. It secretly pines 
to make Scripture more Evangelical than Christ has made 
it. Even Cecil, who is a lovely specimen of this school, and 
who has done much good in checking its excesses, does yet, 
I grieve to say, fail somewhat in this respect. And Simeon 
makes a poor defence oi his Prayer Book, when he declares 
he has no scruples about using its phraseology, while yet he 



106 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

regrets that some of its ex|)ressions require so much ex- 
pla?iatio7i. Why, these expressions are Scripture, nothing 
but Scripture ; and does it never occur to such good men 
that God has given us these sublime and mysterious for- 
mulas, on purpose that they 77iay be explained over and over 
again ? He is wiser than man, even in apparent " foolish- 
ness," and when His words are not according to our carnal 
wisdom, what does it signify, save that we need to be put 
in mind, very often, of the exceeding riches of His mercy 
and goodness toward us. But for these " dark sayings," 
much of His wonderful way would pass from our remem- 
brance. We should utterly fail to " comprehend, with all 
saints^ what is the breadth and length and depth and 
height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fidness of 
Godr 

We see another reason for some of these sayings, the 
fulness of which is manifested to us, " and not to the 
world," when we read those other words of Christ, — "Unto 
you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of 
God; but to others in parables, that seeing, they might not 
see, and hearing, they might not understand^" Spiritual 
things are revealed to the spiritual. It is mercy to others 
that they " know not what they do," in rejecting myste- 
ries. But, there are some who would refuse " strong meat," 
even to those who are of full age. They seem to think it 
would be better if the Scriptures contained nothing but the 
milk that belongs to babes. They would leave nothing for 
those who are no longer children; who have become more 
skilful than others in the word of righteousness ; " who, by 
reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both 
good and evil." Lord, increase our faith. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF G01>. 107 



6. DARK sayi:n-gs. 

For whether they like it, or like it not, it has pleased 
God to put into the ScrijDtures " some things hard to be 
understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable 
wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures^ to their own de- 
struction." The monstrous system of 1 tomanism is built 
on such " wrested " or perverted Scriptures ; Scriptures in- 
terpreted against all evidence, and contrary to the testimony 
of " the Keeper and witness of Holy Writj" in the pure and 
primitive age. But, is all this any reason why we should 
not use these Holy Scriptures in sincerity and truth ? Is 
there not all the greater call upon us to economize aright 
what others so grossly abuse and corrupt ? Sectarianism, 
true to its character, gives up perverted texts to the enemy. 
The sheep are not its own, and it leaves them to the wolf. 
The Church, calmly and faithfully, restores truth to its 
place, and feeds the sheep of Christ with all that the Good 
Shepherd meant for them. Again, I say, how precious is 
our Prayer Book for its sublime fidelity to the words of the 
" one Shepherd," even when they are parables and myths, 
when they are " goads and nails," — " the words of the wise 
and their dark sayings." 

I propose by and by to discuss some of these sayings, 
more particularly ; but, even now, let us look them in the 
face, and let us ask all candid Christians to remember that 
they " are spirit and are life." They are given us by Him 
who designs them for important purposes in His kingdom ; 
and they who pervert them, as the Papist does, are not 
more to be censured than others who, professing a greater 
veneration for Scripture, have no practical use for them, 
but heartily wish them out of their way. 



108 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



7. FIRST HALVES. 

Let US put a few of th-ese texts together, so as to take a 
good look at them. 

(1) " Thou art Peter {Petrus)^ and upon this Rock (petra) 
I will build My Church ; and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." With 
which connect: 

(2) " Tell it unto the Church : but if he neglect to 
hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man 
and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and what- 
soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

(3) "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto 
you : as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And 
when He had said this. He breathed on them, and saith 
unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins ye 
remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins 
ye retain, they are retained." With which connect : 

(4) " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in 
earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world," 



8. NEGATIONS. 

Here let us stop for a moment. You are a little impa- 
tient, I see. Yes ! very true ; it does not mean what apos- 
tate Rome has made it seem to mean to thousands and mil- 
lions of our race. That Rome has wrested these Scriptures 



APOLLOS : OE THE WAY OF GOD. 109 

to the destruction of souls, and of nations, and of Churches, 
cannot be denied. Suffice it, nothing of her interpretations 
of these Scriptures was known to those nearest to the 
Apostles. Hers is not Apostolic doctrine, therefore, and 
hence it is not Catholic doctrine. The " Old Catholics " 
are now discovering this, as the Anglican reformers did 
three hundred years ago. Rome has taught whole nations 
to accept these texts in a sense the most monstrous, as 
compared with their original signification. But, that is 
not the question. I do not ask what Scripture does not 
mean, but I ask. Does it mean anything ? What do you 
make it mean ? You hold that there is no such thing as a 
historic Church, against which "the gates of hell" have 
not prevailed. You hold that there are no organic laws 
which, having been legislated under such a charter, by men 
on earth, have been ratified by Christ in heaven. You 
hold that there is no visible Church having authority to he 
heard^ and which not to hear is to be as a heathen man. 
You do not believe in " one Baptism for the remission of 
sins ; " neither do you believe in any remission of sins of 
which certain qualified men are the " ministers and stew- 
ards." You do not believe in any " power of the keys " 
lodged anywhere ; nor in any order of men to whom 
Christ has given power in His Church ; to whom He has 
said, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you; " 
and whose office is perpetuated, according to certain laws, 
which are " bound in heaven." Nor do you belicA^e that 
Christ is still with the Apostolic order in their work and 
ministry, as He was with the eleven, in fulfilment of His 
promise to be with the same office and ministry " to the 
end of the world." 

You believe in none of these things; you believe in 
" five or six denominations, at least ; " that these denomi- 
nations may set up any man for their minister ; that when set 
up he has no more power or authority than the rest of his 



110 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

society; that any one who can speak, and is willing to 
speak, about Christ, is a minister of Christ, etc. Now, 
then, what did Christ mean by all these startling and tre- 
mendous words ? Are they barren platitudes, or are they 
full of grace and truth ? Are they intended to intimate the 
reverse of what they seem to mean, — that there is no Church 
and no Creed, and that whoever chooses may minister as he 
chooses ? Do the Scriptures labor like mountains to pro- 
duce such mice ? You must answer these earnest questions. 
These are the words of the Son of God. They are in your 
Bibles. Look at them — you who profess yourself a Bible- 
Christian, and who despise others as less so than yourself — 
and tell me what Christ intends to teach us by such ex- 
pressions. How do you understand them ? Do you feed 
on them, love them, and nourish your soul in the use of 
them ? Would you feel the want of them if they could be 
proved without signification? Would you lose anything 
of your actual religious life, if it were now discovered that 
they are corrupt words, and never should have been intro- 
duced into the Gospels ? Would you not rather be relieved 
of a painful unreality ? Be candid ; are they words of life, 
love, hope, and joy to you ? 



9. POSITIOl^S. 

To us they are words of ineffable love. They pass un- 
derstanding ; but we know, in part, what they mean, and 
you may see in our Prayer Book just how we use them, 
feed on them, and are fed by them. Every one of them is 
there treasured up, and brought forth, in its season, for 
profitable use. We have been taught to " observe and do " 
accordingly, because Christ so commanded ; and however 
imperfectly such Scriptures may be appreciated in these 
cold, heartless, unbelieving days, we yet have ordinances 
and uses, kept and cherished among us, for which these 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. Ill 

Scriptures are our warrant. Thus, we believe that St. Peter 
had a peculiar call and a peculiar mission among the 
Apostles, — a call and mission which were his, and no other 
man's. We commemorate this truth on a day called after 
his name, and we make of it neither more nor less than did 
the Apostolic Synod of Jerusalem ; than did St. Paul, in 
his Acts ; than did St. Peter himself, in his two Epistles. 
These Epistles are, in short, the ever-living voice of this 
Apostle to the Church, under the seal and under the limi- 
tations of his special call and mission ; in which he still 
lives " after his decease," " strengthens his brethren," and 
perpetually renews his testimony to the Messiahship of 
Jesus ; the testimony which made him a stone, and the 
acceptance of which he says makes us also stones, — Christ 
himself being the Great Rock and the Foundation-stone. 
When St. Peter himself undertook to modify this Gospel, 
he became an offence to his Master, and was called no more 
a stone, but a " Satan." He was no longer preferred, but 
set aside : " Get thee behind Me, Satan." So fares an apos- 
tate Church that belies His name. 

While we believe thus of St. Peter, and measurably of 
all the Apostles — among whom, with James and John, and 
Paul afterward, he was a chief pillar — we also believe that 
his Faith or Confession is the rock {^petrd) on which the 
Church is builded. Hence, we never assemble for Divine 
Service without making a similar confession in the Apostolic 
Creed, every article of which we find enfolded in St. Peter's 
words, " Thou art the Christ of God." They are expanded 
in the Acts of the Apostles, into these articles, and they 
were received by the Church in a "form of sound words;" 
and in the Council of Nice they were digested into the 
great confession of Christ's Spouse. The Church, speaking 
as she does in this creed, speaks with authority ; and not to 
hear the Church so speaking, is to become " as a heathen." 
You do not see this truth, but we do ; and suffer me to 



112 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

add, that your genuine piety is better than your inconsistent 
profession ; for you do, in fact, interpret your Bible by the 
Creed of the Church. As soon as you discard its positive 
affirmations, you become a Socinian, and lose the faith. 

So, too, we believe the Apostles had jDower to loose and 
bind, and to construct the organic laws of the Church: 
to which laws, accordingly, you will find, by our Prayer 
Book, we defer in all respects. If we do not, it is not for 
want of anxiety and effort so to do. It costs us something 
to be thus faithful to unfashionable truths of Scripture. 
You misunderstand and misrepresent us; but our only 
desire is to obey Christ, and to preserve the unity of His 
Family. Unity is preserved by cleaving to " the Apostles' 
fellowship," and accepting the ministry of those who can 
show their historical claim to a share in our Master's com- 
mission, — "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
you." If that identical commission is not now in force, 
if it be not now borne by some who can prove their claim 
to it, by the same evidences which prove the identity of the 
Scriptures which they expound and preach, then Christ's 
promise has failed, and our faith itself is vain. But we 
have no such difficulty. The identical commission which 
these words of Christ conveyed is preserved among us ; 
hence, we find comfort in using the words of its institution, 
and have no doubt at all as to their meaning. We see in 
our pastors a continuous line of witnesses, the existence of 
which confirms the Incarnation and the Resurrection. They 
received their commission from a risen Master. The j^er- 
petuation of such a commission is evidence of His Resur- 
rection, and proves the ability of our glorified Lord to fulfil 
His promises, and to be with His ambassadors unto the end 
of the world. Think what is forfeited by those who have 
lost all part and lot in such a historic line. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 113 



10. OBJECTIOXS 

True, there are other Scriptures which you make much 
of, and which you prefer to these ; that is, you treat the 
Bride just as the Socinian treats the Bridegroom. You 
reject what you do not like, and you exaggerate what suits 
you, — using texts without reference to their balance and 
proportion ; without accepting them as part of a system 
which includes and harmonizes them with another part. 
We accept the same Scriptures which you delight in, and 
use them as freely as we use those which you practically re- 
ject. They have a noble place in our system, which there- 
fore is presumptively the true system, because it rejects 
nothing of God's Word. Willingly, therefore, we will 
take up your favorite texts, and show you that your mean- 
ing cannot be right, because you use them to cancel other 
texts. Ours, rather, must be correct, because with us the 
reverse is true ; we use them ia complete harmony with all 
other texts of Holy Scripture. I urge not now, what is 
nevertheless true, that you interpret them as nobody ever 
did till they had a novel idea to defend ; but I do remind 
you that in this you precisely copy the Pa^^ists, whose in- 
terpretation of the words addressed to St. Peter is a mere 
afterthought, never heard of till Rome wanted something 
to play off against Constantinople, having first invented 
the fable of St. Peter's pontificate ; begging also the ques- 
tion, by affirming of his fancied successors, all that Christ 
said to St. Peter, personally and exclusively. 

Let us look at some specimens of your favorite Scrip- 
tures. Here they are : 

(1.) "The kingdom of God is within you." 
(2.) " Who can forgive sins but God only ?" 
(3.) " One is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye are 
brethren." 



114 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

(4.) " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
Gospel." 

(5.) " For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth 
anything, nor uncircumcision ; but faith which worketh by- 
love." 

(6.) " This Man, because He continueth ever, hath an 
unchangeable (untransmissible) priesthood." 

(7.) " Jesus said. Forbid him not : for there is no man 
that shall do a miracle in My name, that can lightly speak 
evil of Me. For he that is not against us is on our part." 

(8.) " Where two or three are gathered together in My 
name, there am I in the midst of them." 

There is a solemn octave of Scriptures which are much 
used by all who defend that chaos of modern sectarianism 
which we have already exhibited. I do not know that any 
stronger texts are claimed ; others are freely introduced to 
eke these out ; but here is the formidable array of counter- 
texts by which sectarian Christianity justifies its existence 
and disputes every principle of historical Christianity, and 
of One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. On this harp 
of eight strings all its tunes are played, just as Rome 
plays on " Thou art Peter," and other texts which are 
assumed to have some reference to the Pope. So these are 
assumed to be the exclusive property of some " five or six 
diflferent denominations, at least ; " and many is the sect 
yet unborn that is destined to exist because of this charter 
to unbounded license for preaching, ministering, and altering 
the Gospel. What can we reply to such a formidable chal- 
lenge ? 

11. 1^0 CAK^CELLING. 

The best reply we can give is to show what a blessed 
use we have for these texts in entire coincidence with those 
other texts, which you practically reject. But, first, we 
may justly remind you that they cannot possibly mean 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 115 

anything contrary to those other texts. You cancel one 
Scripture by another. You introduce your favorite texts 
as a universal solvent. They corrode and destroy all laws, 
as you use them, for you use them to break down other 
revelations of the Divine will and way. 

The Gospel is a unit, and a harmonious whole, and, con- 
sequently, that must be a wrong system which takes cer- 
tain limitary and restrictive laws, and employs them with- 
out reference to the laws they help to define. Thus, in the 
Decalogue, we have the law of the Sabbath in close con- 
nection with laws prescribing heavy work to the priests 
themselves on that day ; and our Lord says, " Have ye 
not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath-days the 
priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blame- 
less ? " Now, suppose we take this principle of " profaning 
the Sabbath," on the part of priests, and erect it into a 
system wholly subversive of the law itself, does not any 
eye detect the fallacy ? Let us, then, observe how com- 
pletely this octave subverts the other system of texts 
we have exhibited, provided we give them the force and 
scope with which sectarianism invests them. For (1) there 
can be no visible kingdom of Christ on earth if you so 
use the first text; yet there was a visible Church to 
which "the Lord added daily," as we read in the Acts. 
The Quakers, then, are consistent in their use of it ; they 
show us a "society" which is not a Church, even in name, 
and in which there is no ministry nor ordinances ; their 
light being inward and invisible, so far as its corporate 
character is concerned. Such is, indeed, the only consistent 
use of the text, "The kingdom of God is within you," if it 
be thus perverted. I do not now urge another rendering, 
which makes it one of the clearest manifestations of Christ's 
visible kingdom, because our translators have given it a 
sense of which it is capable, and which we have no need to 
disallow. And (2) there can be no remission of sins, even 



IIG APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

by God himself, through human agency, if this truth be 
used as it was by the Pharisees against the Son of Man. 
Yet John did " baptize with water for the remission of 
sins," and so did the Apostles. Again, (3) if the fact that 
"all we are brethren" is to be urged against a commis- 
sioned ministry, it plainly overthrows the existence of the 
Apostleship, and the precept to " obey those who are over 
us in the Lord." The Apostles themselves were impostors 
when they said, " We command you, brethren, in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." (4) So, if the fact that St. Paul 
was personally sent as a preacher rather than a baptizer, is 
to be forced into a law against Baptism ; and if (5) the fact 
that a " new creature," and not circumcision nor uncircum- 
cision, is the prime consideration in the profession of Chris- 
tianity, is to be used for a similar purpose ; then, clearly, 
Christ himself is carnal, and not spiritual, when He says, 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (6) 
Again, if the truth that Christ is our great High Priest, 
and does not transmit His High Priesthood or Pontificate 
to others, is to be made a law against any Christian priest- 
hood, what becomes of the grand foundation principle that 
all Christians are " priests unto God," — a " royal priest- 
hood," from which those certainly are not excluded who 
are called to especial office and ministry in that priesthood ? 
(7) And if we must not forbid any man who can do so, to 
cast out devils, because " he followeth not " the AjDOStles, 
does that prove that we are not to be followers of the 
Apostles ? We are expressly commanded, elsewhere, to 
follow them, and to "continue steadfastly in their doctrine 
and fellowship." (8) And, finally, if Christ be graciously 
pleased to meet with any two or three, who are met together 
in His name, does it therefore follow that the two or three 
are authorized to meet in opposition to His ordinances, or 
to do anything contrary to His holy name ? When two or 
three are met together, are they authorized to act otherwise 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 117 

than in accordance with the precept of His Word ? Doubt- 
less, where even two or three Christian women are so gath- 
ered together, there is a Church, as there was in Lydia's 
household ; but do you infer that, therefore, Lydia had a 
commission to preach, and to ordain, and to administer the 
Holy Sacraments ? What is the spirit that would force 
such a Scripture against other Scriptures which assert that 
God is " not the author of confusion," and that in every 
congregation we are subject to what He and His Apostles 
have ordained, and hence bound to observe and do accord- 
ingly? 

12. HALVES JOINED. 

So far, I have proved that these texts cannot possibly 
mean what they are assumed to mean by those who handle 
them for the purpose of subverting other positive ordinances 
of the Gospel. But I am not content with any negative 
position. All these texts have a blessed use as positive 
truths, ancillary to other positive truths, and guarding us 
against the abuse of Divine ordinances. We shall do well, 
in these days, to make a right use of them for such ends. 
Therefore, I propose to show their substantive meaning in 
connection with the entire system of the Gospel. This only 
would I urge before I rest for the present, viz., that as no 
half-truth can be used to cancel another half, and no text 
to destroy the life of any other text, so also it is clear that 
the system of texts I have referred to cannot properly be 
used to sustain the sectarianism which, as we have seen, 
was not permitted to the followers of Apollos, and which 
the Holy Ghost destroyed as pernicious, when it existed 
only in element at Corinth. Moreover, this is apparent : (1) 
that there are certain primary texts, and (2) other second- 
ary texts ; the latter guarding against the abuses and cor- 
ruptions of the former. Which, then, are primary ? I 
answer, obviously those which have organic force, and which 



118 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

correspond with positive institutions of the Gospel, the 
ordained ministry, and the sacraments. Others must be 
secondary texts, which seem, at first, contrary to these 
institutions, but which are found, on closer inspection, not 
only to harmonize with them, but to preserve them and 
define them, as a fence limits a field. 

Now, we must candidly observe that these secondary 
Scriptures are numerous, and quite capable of being built 
up into a counter system, if taken by themselves ; of which 
Quakerism is the consistent and logical proof. Their great 
number teaches us how very important and precious are the 
principles embodied in these secondary Scriptures. Ob- 
viously, they were given so fully and freely because of the 
fearful tendency in human nature to pervert positive insti- 
tutions ; of which Popery furnishes the obvious illustration. 
So, then, take the primary half-truth, and despise the other 
half, you become a Papist, or at least adopt what is essen- 
tial Popery. Take the secondary half-truth by itself, and 
you adopt what, if carried out, is Quakerism. The Catholic 
and Apostolic believer puts the two halves together, and 
accepts the harmonious whole, in all its unity and its or- 
ganic perfection. His Bible is an integer ; his religion is 
all the whole doctrine of Christ and His Apostles. There- 
fore, he has a peace and joy in believing and living and 
working, and leaving the rest to Christ ; a joy such as the 
world cannot give and cannot take away. 



13. gautio:n-s. 

But it is only with reference to system that we speak of 
certain texts as secondary. They presuppose other organic 
laws or constitutions, and they are secondary in that sense. 
In themselves considered, they are fundamental, primary, 
essential, and full of the spirit of our holy religion. Just 
so, in a free State, certain laws presuppose organization and 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 119 

government ; but they are secondary in no other sense than 
that of order and system; for they are full of the spirit of 
the nation, they are liberty and life to it. And yet, as this 
spirit, when once it is pressed to the destruction of the 
organic laws, becomes license and destroys the State, just 
so the glorious freedom of the Gospel, if once forced to the 
destruction of the organic laws of Christ, begets that con- 
fusion and strife which the Scriptures ever^^where condemn 
as the work of the evil one. We trust we have made this 
clear; if so, it must be convincing. 



14. EQUILIBEIUM. 

All this being -understood, nobody can more thoroughly 
sympathize with those who magnify the secondary texts 
than I do. In the State, I glorify those constitutional prin- 
ciples which make it a free State ; but I do so with entire 
respect to those primary laws which create the State and 
give it a government. The moment I reject these, all is 
chaos, and liberty perishes, as in France, in the name of 
liberty. So in the Church, I magnify the glorious liberty 
of the Gospel ; but I do so with a full recognition of those 
Divine laws which create the Church and which secure its 
unity and perpetuity. Unsettle or undervalue these, and 
the faith itself is soon lost amid the chaotic elements engen- 
dered by an abuse of Gospel liberty. Why is it that the 
human mind seems so incapable of balancing law and 
liberty ? In the Church, as in the State, one class of minds 
is essentially mechanical and despotic, while another is as 
absolutely licentious in its tendencies. Between these is 
the true system of Christ, prescribing a blessed harmony 
between letter and spirit, securing order .and system, and 
then lubricating the operation of law by the blessed ele- 
ments of love and mercy. 

With that type of Church spirit which has been justly 



120 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

denominated high and dry^ I have no sympathy whatever : 
just as little can I sympathize with that spirit in the Church 
which is low and lax. Between these is that true and 
healthful spirit which the judicious Hooker so splendidly 
illustrates in his wonderful harmonies of order and truth, 
of law and liberty. 

15. SECOISTD NOT LESS. 

And these things premised, let me vindicate the princi- 
ples of those texts which I call secondary ; and so, let me 
.show how primary they are, nevertheless, in their true re- 
lations. They establish two grand truths in which my soul 
delights, and which are essential to the Gospel : the one is 
the sole and essential Priesthood of Christ ; and the second 
is the s^^iritual nature of His Kingdom, and the subordina- 
tion of its visible system to the suj^remacy of Christ alone. 
No " Evangelical " brother in the ranks of sectarianism 
believes more heartily than I do, or can insist more earnestly 
on these glorious verities. But v/hy does he oppose them 
to the organic laws of Christ, to which I have called his 
attention, and on which he never has anything to say ? To 
illustrate : he believes that " the Sabbath was made for man, 
not man for the Sabbath." Can anything be more essential 
in the spirit of all God's ordinances than this ? He who 
does not understand and love this glorious principle of 
spiritual freedom, is, so far, ignorant of the mind and char- 
acter of his God. But does this truth abrogate the spiritual 
force of the Fourth Commandment, or justify me in forget- 
ting to magnify the law and to make it honorable ? Now, 
the whole octave of texts which we are considering bears 
to the other texts which I have called primary or organic 
a relation precisely similar to that which the principle just 
stated bears to the law of the Sabbath. 

And Ave may further illustrate this matter by observing 



APOLLOS : OK THE WAY OF GOD. 1 21 

that the octave of texts under reviewal embodies principles 
which were just as true under the law as they are under the 
Gospel. He, then, who abuses them to overthrow the order 
and unity of the Christian Church, must observe that the 
same principles Avould have abrogated the Mosaic system 
long before its time, and while every Israelite was, unques- 
tionably, " a debtor to keep the whole law." 



16. DO WE MAKE VOID THE LAW? 

It was as true under Moses as it is under Christ, that 
there is only one true and essential priest. The eternal 
Melchizedek is recomized in Psalm ex. as the Great 
High Priest, of whom Aaron and his successors were mere 
shadows. St. Paul proves this ; but his argument, misap- 
plied, would have denied to the Levitical priesthood any 
sacerdotal character. Theirs was a typical priesthood 
merely ; but the Christian ministry may be an instru- 
mental priesthood, — the agents and stewards of the one 
Priest, Christ Jesus, without any violence to the precious 
and grand reality of His eternal priesthood. 

So, too, under the Law, as under the Gospel, all God's 
people were priests, — " a royal priesthood, a peculiar peo- 
ple." What St. Peter says to Christians, under the Gospel, 
the very same thing said Moses to the Hebrews : he called 
them, speaking for God, "a peculiar treasure, a kingdom 
of priests, a holy nation." Obviously, the same abuse 
which forbids us to call Christ's ministers priests, and 
which abrogates Apostolic order in the Christian ministry, 
would have destroyed the Aaronic priesthood. A similar 
pretext would have justified the sins of King Uzziah, and 
of his predecessors, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 

But the precious truth of Christ's un transmitted suprem- 
acy does force us to "consider Him as the Apostle and 
Great High Priest of our profession," in a sense which ex- 
6 L 



122 APOLLos: on the way of god. 

eludes any other supremacy. No man can make himself 
" lord over God's heritage " — that is, a pontiff or pope, 
whether on a small scale or a great one — without sin. 
There is but " one Lawgiver," one only infallible source of 
authority, and in that sense, as with Christians, Moses and 
Aaron and all the Jewish people were declared to be breth- 
ren. God was their common Father, and they were His 
family. This principle, however, did not annul the subor- 
dinate typical authority of the Aaronic priests ; nor can 
the same principle annul any autliority in the Christian 
Church which rests on the positive institutions of Christ, 
and of which those who hear it can truly say, as Moses did, 
" The Lord hath sent me to do all these things, for I have 
not done them of my own mind." 

Again, under the Law, as under the Gospel, it was said, 
" Forbid them not ; " for when Eldad and Medad prophesied, 
and one exclaimed, "My lord Moses 'forbid them," he an- 
swered, " Would God that all the Lord's people were 
prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon 
them." But did this abrogate the law that " the priest's 
lips should keep knowledge, and that the people should 
seek the law at his mouth ? " Precisely the same is the 
Christian principle that we are not to " forbid any one to 
do a miracle," to whom Christ gives the power, l^ay, we 
must rejoice in it. But does this abrogate the positive in- 
stitutions of Christ, or render obsolete the law that " the 
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets?" 



17. AK EPISODE. 

That great thinker and thought-breeder. Bacon, long ago 
called attention to the apparent conflict of two texts which 
are entirely harmonized by what has already been said. 
Thus our Lord says, " Forbid him not ; for there is no man 
which shall do a miracle in My name, that can lightly speak 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 123 

evil of Me. For lie that is not against us, is on our part." 
Yet again, in another connection, He says, " He that is not 
with Me, is against Me ; and he that gathereth not with Me, 
scattereth." 

But observe, in the one instance, our Lord was speaking 
on the principles we have called secondary, concerning one 
who, though he was not a follower of the Apostles, was 
certainly helping, and not hindering, their work, and that 
in an exceptional case, to which our Lord was pleased to 
give the exceptional attestation of miraculous powers. In 
the other instance, however, our Lord was speaking inci- 
dentally of tlie organic unity of His kingdom ; for He had 
just said, "Every kingdom divided against itself \^ brought 
to desolation." And in that connection He incidentally 
gives us the general law that, in Christ's kingdom, not to 
be with Christ in the organic system of His mystical body 
is to give strength to His adversary. Surely, the history 
of J.norganic Protestantism fearfully exemplifies this fact. 
If Bacon had lived to see the ultimate products of the 
Swiss and German reformations, his acute mind would not 
have stopped without brilliantly illustrating, by these ex- 
amples, the saying of Christ, " He that gathereth not with 
Me, scattereth." 

18. FROM OF OLD. 

So essential and absolute are the verities of the octave 
we are now considering, that they have always existed in 
the nature of things. They are as old as Abel's faith, and 
have operated ever since "men began to call upon the 
name of the Lord." Had they been applied from of old, 
as they are now applied by the sect-spirit, there never 
could have been any true priesthood or Church or system 
of worship on earth. 

The kingdom of God was spiritual, in the heart and 



124 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

conscience of believers, under the law, and as St. Paul 
argues, true circumcision was of the heart in Abraham's 
time, as well as in ours. So, then, in Moses' day, as in 
ours, " the kingdom of God was within men." And then, 
as now, " neither circumcision availed anything, nor uncir- 
cumcision, but faith, which worketh by love." Yet Christ 
was circumcised to honor the law, and He commanded us 
to receive baptism, which is the Gospel circumcision ; that 
is, He bade us to obey the letter of the law, and then to 
observe that all the benefits of this obedience is derived 
only from faith which fulfils its spirit. In this sense, even 
Isaiah might have said, " I was sent not to circumcise, but 
to preach the Gospel." Yet Isaiah excused no man from 
circumcision ; and St. Paul, as well as St. Peter, com- 
manded his converts to be baptized in the name of the 
Lord Jesus. How obvious, in the Scriptures, is this prin- 
ciple of obedience to the law, as well as that of trusting 
only for its benefits to faith in Christ. 

Again, under the law, as under the Gospel, the prayers 
of those who were •' gathered together " in the name of the 
Lord God of Israel were accepted in the synagogue as 
well as in the temple. But this fact did not excuse the 
pious Israelite from the duty of going up to Jerusalem, and 
keeping the Passover. It must be used, under the Gospel, 
for the blessed purpose of stimulating public worship, and 
of persuading every believer to have a church in his house. 
But, as has been already argued, it can have no more force 
to authorize Lydia and her household to set up a ministry 
and worship apart from that of the Apostles, than the 
principle of the Synagogue could have been used to justify 
those who said, and said truly enough, "AH the congrega- 
tion is holy, and the Lord is among them." This was true, 
but it was said to support untruth, and therefore the " gain- 
saying of Korah" is condemned by the Xew Testament, 
expressly. Now, if this gainsaying is a sin to which there 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAT OF GOD. 125 

are temptations under the Gospel, it must be because there 
is a Christian priesthood, an authorized system of steward- 
ship, under the Gospel, which we are bound to support, and 
not to gainsay. He, therefore, who will compare the Epistle 
of St. Jude and the Second Epistle of St. Peter, with the 
•story of Korah and the story of King Uzziah, will see how 
inexcusable it is to corrupt a blessed truth into a principle 
as hostile to the order and system of Christianity as it was 
of old to the Divine institutions of the law. 



19. A GREAT POI]^T. 

It only remains to consider the grand principle that no 
man can forgive sins : " Who can forgive sins, but God 
only ? " This was true ; yet it was said in a wrong spirit, 
and to contradict and blaspheme the Son of God himself, 
when, as the Son of Man, he forgave sins, under the com- 
mission of Him " who sent Him." It must be borne in 
mind that Christ himself exercised this power, not directly 
as God, but ministerially as the Son of Man, " to whom all 
power in heaven and earth had been given,'^'' He showed, 
therefore, not that God had this power in heaven, but that 
"the Son of Man had power on earth" thus to minister 
reconciliation in the name of " Him who sent Him." So 
He said, elsewhere, concerning His entire ministry on earth, 
"I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father hath taught 
Me, I speak these things." Now, this same Minister, Apos- 
tle, and High Priest of our professfon, who said " All power 
is given unto Me," added, " As My Father hath sent Me, 
even so send I you;" "Go ye therefore and baptize;" 
" Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted." None can 
forgive sins but God only ; but God can commission -man, 
ministering in His name and by His authority, to say min- 
isterially, " Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, 
and thou shalt receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 



126 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 



20. A SMALL POINT, 

As to the word-quarrel about regeneration in baptism, 
one word may suffice. The term " regeneration " occurs 
but once in Holy Scripture, with reference to the nature 
of man, and there it is connected with the font, and dis- 
tinguished from renewal. A popular blunder confounds 
the Scriptural distinction, and makes it equivalent to con- 
version and renewal ; but as we cannot alter the Bible, nor 
the Prayer Book, to suit every abuse of language, let us 
calmly explain terms. What, then, does my Evangelical 
brother and friend wish me to state as the conditions of 
salvation? Faith, penitence, true couA^ersion from sin to 
godliness, a change of heart, mind, will, life, nature ; nay, 
of the whole man from the power of sin to the power of 
grace — Is this what he insists upon ? God be praised that 
he does ; so do I, and no man in his senses can do less, 
according to the Scriptures; and every baptized person 
must be made to understand this, or he is " yet in his sins." 
What then? Does that alter the fact that the second 
Adam has given him something, in his baptism, " which 
by nature he could not have," and which enables him to 
accept and obey the Gospel, if he will ? That something 
is called " a begetting of water and of the Spirit," and this 
again is translated into the ^' washing of regeneration j " a 
word, I repeat it, once used, and only once, in all the Scrip- 
tures, with reference to the work of grace in man's soul. 
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body:" 
that body is Christ's body, and we are thus grafted into it. 
Begotten of Adam, — that is generation ; begotten of the 
second Adam by " water and the Holy Ghost," — that is 
regeneration. In the one case, original sin ; in the othei', 
corresponding grace to resist it. But the will to use this 
grace must come of conversion; the " renewing of the Holy 
Ghost " alone makes it effectual to salvation. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 127 

Honest errors upon this subject might possibly be cor- 
rected by a critical construction of the Lord's words to 
Nicodemus, " Ye must be begotten from above ; " not " born 
again." A new birth suggests the completion of the gift 
of life; but Christ's words imply, perhaps, only seminal 
grace ; that is, the conception through the Spirit of new 
life, from the second Adam. On this I do not insist ; but 
it may meet the difficulties of some, and it furnishes a 
Scriptural position entirely consistent with our offices. In 
the primitive Church the Teleioi^ or complete in Christ, 
were those who had received confirmation. The baptized 
were but the initiated. 



21. THE GREAT POINT AGAIN. 

Now, even under the law, John baptized " for the 
remission of sins," and the Pharisees who would not be 
baptized of him rejected justification in so doing ; for in 
refusing to "justify God" they " rejected the counsel of 
God against themselves," and so were not justified, but con- 
demned (St. Luke, vii. 29, 30). Without faith and repent- 
ance, no baptism could have done them any good ; but had 
they accepted John's baptism in true faith and penitence, 
who can deny that by John's ministry they would have 
received " remission of sins ? " If, then, this spiritual ben- 
efit was conferred by a man, ministerially, even under the 
law, obviously nothing can be objected to a Gospel com- 
mission which involves the same principle. Rather, as 
John's ministry was a prelude and introduction to the 
Christian ministry and dispensation, we must conclude that 
John's baptism was an approximation to the richer and 
fuller benefit of the Gospel Sacrament. So he said him- 
self; and so St. Paul explained it. Can Christian baptism, 
then, be anything less than John's ? We know it is some- 
thing more and better, — it is the work of the Holy Ghost ; 



128 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

for '' by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." 
Such, then, is the glorious truth of the text we are consid- 
ering, though it came from the lips of despisers and mock- 
ers. None can forgive sins, save God only. But we are 
" ministers of Christ and stewards of His mysteries." We 
bless in His name, and " stretch forth His hand to heal ; " 
God hath " committed to us the word of reconciliation." 
In all these things we are the mere agents and implements 
of the Great High Priest, and " none can forgive sins but 
God only." 

22. APPLICATIONS. 

Such being the glorious truth and spirit contained in 
the octave of texts we have now reviewed, we profess and 
obey them, not as against the other texts, but as illustrat- 
ing and carrying them out. Our use of them is cordial and 
is in entire harmony with all Scripture. Because there is a 
visible kingdom of Christ, therefore we remind ourselves 
and others that its domain is not geographical and external, 
but spiritual, and that our visible connection with it may 
be nullified if we forget that " the kingdom of God is not 
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost." Because we bear a commission " to remit 
and to retain," therefore it becomes necessary for us to 
remind all men that not " by our own power or holiness " 
we do these acts of spiritual healing, but that " His name, 
through faith in His name" alone, enables us to say to any 
man, " Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." 
It was faith that saved, even when Jesus himself said, 
"Thy sins are forgiven thee." And so now, it is only 
faith that can save when Jesus says the same words to a 
sinner by our unworthy ministry. 

So, also, as Christ established the College of Apostles, 
and then said to them, ^' One is your Master and all ye are 
brethren;" so, because we accept the Apostolic ministry 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 129 

on that very ground, we uphold the principle which rejects 
a Papacy, and the spirit of which forbids the ministers of 
Christ to lord it over their brethren to whom they are sent 
to minister. Obviously, this grand truth means one thing 
in connection with the acknowledged Institution of a Min- 
istry, and quite another when urged in contempt of such 
an institution. We accept it and love it in the relations 
which He who gave it was pleased to establish. 

Again, we recognize the truth that to preach the Gos- 
pel is the highest function of the Christian priesthood; 
that the humblest deacon may baptize, while an apostle 
may be better employed in persuading men " to repent and 
be baptized," in obedience to Christ. We also recognize 
the truth that where there is any peril of starting a sect, 
or of leading men to call themselves by human names, 
whether the name of Paul or Apollos, or Luther or Wesley, 
there a Christian minister may wisely imitate St. Paul, and 
delegate the office of baptism to somebody else, " lest any 
should say that he baptizes into his own name." Besides, 
even when baptized, we teach that this profits nothing 
" without faith, which worketh by love." We utterly re- 
ject ceremonialism; we are enemies of the entire system 
of ritualistic or mechanical salvation. And because, like 
St. Peter, we command men to be baptized and confirmed, 
also, therefore, like St. Peter, we insist the more vigorously, 
that if any one, like Simon Magus, obeys these commands 
ceremonially, but without faith and without penitence, " it 
availeth nothing." Yes, we tell such an one, with St. Peter, 
that till he does repent truly, and so gives efifect to the ordi- 
nances he has accepted, he is yet " in the gall of bitterness 
and the bond of iniquity." 

23. PEIESTHOOD. 

The unchangeable, untransmitted priesthood of our 
Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is not only con- 



130 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

sistent witli the Christian priesthood, but it is the only 
ground of its existence. Christ is " the Apostle and High 
Priest of our profession." In heaven, He exercises, person- 
ally, this sole and undivided priesthood and apostleship 
before God the Father ; on earth. He exercises the same 
toward men, through men. Such a priesthood, St. Paul 
claims, in express words, as part of the Evangelical system, 
so that there is no conflict between the Evangelical spirit 
and a sacerdotal ministry thus understood. Look at this 
text in the Greek (Rom. xv. 16) : "That I should be the 
Liturge of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, sacerdotally work- 
ing the Gospel of God." The whole context is hierurgical ; 
but not according to any unevangelical system. It is the 
sacerdotalism of the Gospel, based on the one sole propitia- 
tion of Christ. It is Christ, through men, applying His 
grace to Gentile souls ; it is the Apostle, in Christ's name, 
" showing forth the Lord's death until He come." Let us 
be Evangelical as St. Paul was Evangelical, and not 
according to any standard external to the Scriptures. We 
shall soon perceive that all the whole Gospel of Christ is 
consistent with itself, and cannot be made purer or better 
than it is, in its fulness and integrity. 

I have quoted a text preeminently Evangelical, because 
it overthrows Jewish priests and sacrifices, and it deserves 
a moment's further examination. The margin of our Bibles 
suggests its true idea, but this is commonly missed by ex- 
positors. St. Paul asserts that his own apostleship is a 
truer priesthood than that of the law, and that the Chris- 
tian worship, of which the central point is always the 
Lord's Supper, is a better oblation. He has in view 
Isaiah's promise of a Gentile priesthood, and Malachi's 
promise of a Gentile Mincha\ or oblation of bread and 
wine, to be ofiered in every place. He speaks, therefore, 
of "a gift or grace given unto him of God, that he should 
be (not only a preacher of Christ, but also as superseding 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 131 

the Hebrew priests) a Liturgic "ininister^ sacerdotally minis- 
tering (not the law, but) the Gospel ; so that the oblation of 
the Gentiles — promised by Malachi — might be well pleasing 
unto God, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." To this, 
precisely, answers the language of our Liturgy : " Sanctify 
with Thy Word and Holy Spirit these Thy gifts and 
creatures of bread and wine." St. Paul concludes this 
statement of his sacerdotal commission by showing that he 
might still further insist on it, in contrast with the perish- 
ing Levitical priesthood : " In Christ Jesus therefore, I 
have the true claim to priesthood,'^'' Such is the force of 
the passage, and such are its references. The words 
" Things pertaining to God " is the very formula for priest- 
hood which St. Paul uses in Heb. v. 1. He did not care to 
press this claim or boasting, for his apostleship in Christ 
was a fuller claim ; but he reminds the Hebrews that he 
might press it, if it were worth while, arguing that the 
Christian minister is a better priesthood and has a better 
Sierurgy than that of the Law. 

Christ, then, is the only Priest ; His sacrifice on Calvary 
is the only sacrifice: these are truths, but they are truths 
entirely consistent with the existence of a typical priest- 
hood under the law, and of a far more real ministerial 
priesthood under the Gospel ; entirely consistent with 
shadowy sacrifices under Moses, and with better sacrifices 
under Christ ; entirely consistent with, nay, richly illustrat- 
ing, the fact that every prayer based on the Atonement of 
Calvary is a sacrifice, and that every Christian, in his degree 
and vocation, is a " priest unto God." Now, if every Chris- 
tian prayer is a sacrifice, and every true Christian a priest, 
why reject the priesthood and sacrifices of the Christian min- 
istry ? Rome has Judaized ; should we, therefore, Socinian- 
ize ? I have set forth nothing but Scripture, and compared 
Scripture with Scripture. If there be any paradox in these 
statements, they are the paradoxes of Scripture. It is ad' 



132 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

mitted that Scripture has such difficulties. It is impossible, 
in the nature of human thoughts, that such glorious truths 
should be stated without paradox. If so, there is peril. 
But the same peril attends the harmonizing of St. Paul and 
St. James ; beware, lest because you cannot harmonize all 
truth, you should reject any part of " the whole counsel of 
God," which His Apostles " have not shimned to declare." 



24. SUMMARY. 

Mark, then, these Scriptural facts : (l) Isaiah testifies 
of the Gospel times, " I will take of them for priests and 
for Levites ; " and again, " Ye shall be named the priests of 
the Lord." (2) Ezekiel, by Jewish phrases and symbols, ex- 
pressly predicts a Christian priesthood. (3) St. Peter tells 
us that all Christians are a priesthood. (4) St. Paul asserts 
his priestly office and his priestly ministration of the Gos- 
pel. And, finally, (5) the eternal song of the Redeemed is, 
"He hath made us kings and priests to God." To assert, 
therefore, that the sole High-Priesthood of Christ is dis- 
honored by the priesthood of the faithful, or by the name 
of " priests " bestowed on the liturgic ministry of the Gos- 
pel, is contrary to the express words and testimony of 
Scripture. 

But more. The Jewish priesthood and sacrifices were 
continued long after the Sacrifice of Christ was completed 
on the Cross ; they became commemorative, as they had 
been anticipatory, in the eye of faith. To mark the per- 
fect harmony of Law and Gospel, as viewed by faith, the 
Jewish Christians and the Apostles themselves observed 
these sacrifices, took part in them, paid for them, and hon- 
ored them, till Divine Providence took them away. Obvi- 
ously, however, all this is inconsistent with the notion of 
many pious men, that the ideas of a commemorative sacri- 
fice and of a Gospel priesthood are irreconcilable with just 



APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 133 

views of the Atonement. On the contrary, to suppose that 
the Jewish sacrifices had any character as sacrifices before 
Christ died for us, other than that which they had after- 
ward, is dishonoring the Atonement. In the highest sense, 
there never was but one Priest ; there never was but one 
Sacrifice. Symbolic priests and sacrifices there were under 
the Law, and ministerial priests there are under the 
Gospel ; but to maintain that there could be priests before 
Christ came, and not afterward, is to shake the very foun- 
dation of the Gospel, the everlasting Priesthood of Mel- 
chizedek, and the Sacrifice of the Lamb "slain from the 
foundation of the world." 

One admission, however, I miist make, and my evangel- 
cal brother will see that I desire to be candid in making it, — 
it is not evangelical, nor primitive, nor patristic, to put for- 
ward any hierurgic view of the Christian ministry, after 
the Romish manner, as if it were the whole or the chief idea 
of our ministry. The very reverse is the case ; and St. Paul, 
who asserts his superior claim against the Jewish priesthood, 
and against their claim to the only possible priesthood and 
sacrifices, dwells on it no more, but magnifies his Apostle- 
ship and his commission to preach Christ. And, observe, 
he seems to adhere purposely to the nomenclature which 
distinguished the Christian from the Jewish priesthood, as 
preferable to that which might lead to a confusion of ideas. 
So, now, while on no account would I surrender the grand 
evangelic truth that the Christian ministry are priests, and 
their worship a commemorative sacrifice, on the other hand, 
I am as jealous as any one can possibly be against that 
confusion of ideas which Rome has introduced, and which 
the Gospel abhors. And therefore I agree that it is wise 
to follow the example of Scripture, and to avoid the care- 
less or the perverse use of phrases which may mislead. 
On the other hand, the fact that they require explanations, 
I have already shown, is no reason why we should fail to 



134 APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

use them, as Scripture does, in the right way and at proper 
times. 

25. KECUKREI!^CE. 

As to our Lord's principle about forbidding those who 
" follow not the Apostles," I have already given it a place 
in these harmonies ; but we may very well recur to it again. 
I do not think it candid to confine its force to the days of 
miracles and to the letter of the text, which is limited to 
the case of one who does " a miracle in Christ's name." If 
we should tie up the principle to this letter, we should imi- 
tate too closely, it seems to me, the narrowness against 
which, in these essays, I am specially contending. No, I 
allow that this instance includes a great principle, and one, 
which seems to me, designed to give us light in these last 
days, when Christ works so many miracles of grace by 
those who do not follow the Apostles, and who have no 
Apostolic commission. There is the whole of it : Rejoice 
" in this casting out of devils," and '' forbid them not." 
But be ye followers of the Apostles of Christ. Such is the 
positive law for you and for me. And whenever one of 
these whom Christ so greatly honors is disposed to " know 
the way of God more perfectly," be sure there is nothing 
in the Gospel that excuses you from showing him what 
" the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship are," but quite the 
reverse. If you have no such opportunity, leave him to 
the Master. "Who art thou that judgest another man's 
servant ? " Blessed be God for all the good He is pleased 
to do by any instrumentality. Blessed be God for all those 
that " prepare their hearts to seek God, though they be not 
cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." 

This same principle was illustrated by our Saviour under 
the Law. He would not permit His Apostles to call down 
judgment on a Samaritan village. He portrayed the good 
Samaritan for the instruction of the Apostles and the Church. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 135 

He showed that a priest and a Levite of his own institu- 
tion might be condemned, while the Samaritan should be 
accepted. He showed that strangers and foreigners should 
be admitted to the kingdom, while the children of the king- 
dom should be cast out. And from all this he argued, — 
what? Not at all what Sectarianism argues and insists 
upon, but the reverse. For while he laid these things 
before Israelites and Apostles, yet, on the other hand, 
when He talked to the Samaritan woman. He showed 
" what advantage yet had the Jew," and that it was 
" much every way." Yes, even in the honr when He 
opened to her the enlarging privileges of the covenant, and 
the spiritual nature of His Church, and the catholicity of 
its worship, and of its membership ; even then He claimed 
for the Jew the glory of that Divine system of which 
He was part, and out of which should proceed all God's 
mercies to the world. " Ye know not what ye worship ; 
we know what we worship. Salvation is of the Jews." 
Such is the spirit in which we are called to maintain " the 
way of God" as it was expounded to Apollos. Such is the 
temper with which we are called to recognize the wind blow- 
ing where it listeth, and the Spirit also ; to admire the 
overflowings of God's grace in Christ Jesus ; and to rejoice 
that God is " no respecter of persons, but in every nation 
he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted 
with Him." This is St. Peter's Churchman ship, and I see 
nothing but a glorious consistency in holding to the Church 
which is built on his confession, and yet breathing his 
spirit in grateful acknowledgment of Christ's abounding 
grace. 

26. con^clusiojS'. 

Finally, all this prepares the way for the recognition of 
the glorious truth, that wherever two or three are "' syna- 
gogued together unto Christ's name," there He is in the 



136 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

midst of them. I cannot doubt, and I will not doubt, that 
He makes good this promise even to those whose " syna- 
gogues " are far from acceptable to Him in all respects. I 
see no reason to doubt that He made it good to the muti- 
neers of the " Bounty," on Pitcairn's Island, and I see great 
reason to believe that He richly fulfilled it to the Pilgrims 
in the cabin of the "Mayflower." It is clear to me that 
He had exemplified this promise to Apollos before Aquila 
knew him. Glory to God for this infinite and unbounded 
charter to social prayer and praise, according to the light 
He has afibrded, to any souls that seek Him. Sure I am, 
however, that thousands of such souls need to know " the 
way of God more perfectly," and sure I am that it is my 
duty "in meekness to instruct those that oppose them- 
selves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to 
the acknowledging of the truth." 

And here I put it to my orthodox brother who claims to 
be " evangelical," in a sense which excludes me and many 
much better men, I put it to him to say, if he can, what 
evangelical truth I fail to accept, teach, preach, and rejoice 
in, even as he does. Repentance, faith, the atonement, 
justification by faith only, the absolute necessity of spirit- 
ual life, piety, and true godliness, — is there one of these 
that I fail to live by ? if not in my practice, as I should, 
yet in all the sincerity of my heart ; clinging to them as 
my only ground of hope in Christ. Surely not one. But 
there is a grand part of the Gospel besides to which I have 
also called attention, and which is to me as really true, 
comfortable, and evangelical. In this harmonious whole, I 
find the whole of my Saviour and my Bible and my relig- 
ion. I do not feel, I cannot understand, how anything 
which Christ has established, and which my Bible contains, 
should be less to me than light and life. So, then, because 
I love Christ, I love His Word ; and the Church which He 
founded on a Rock; and the promises He gave to His 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 137 

Apostles ; and the authority He left with them, " even to the 
end of the world ;" and the sacraments He instituted ; and 
the " sacerdotal working " of the Gospel, as well as the 
preaching of the same ; and all the things He did and said ; 
and all the forms of expression He chose to employ ; and 
all the mysterious, trying, paradoxical dark sayings, and 
things easy to be wrested, which His infinite wisdom chose 
to deliver to me for the exercise of my faith. Yes, I bless 
Him for the milk that suits me now, and for the " strong 
meat," that He may enable me better to digest, by and by. 
Mine is at least a sunshiny faith ; it believes that God 
is wiser than man, and that He has given us many things 
in parables, in order that a fuller knowledge of these 
mysteries may be made the reward of seeking and search- 
ing and praying. " Oh, the depth ! " And then, while I 
love and hold to " the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship" 
as steadfastly as I can, and enjoy my privileges beyond all 
price, how full of sunshine is the organic Gospel ! I am 
privileged to rejoice that there may be those who " work 
miracles " without following the Apostles, nor am I called 
to fret myself over the imperfect forms in which truth has 
been accepted by others. How sweet it is to see Christ's 
power overruling everything for eventual good, and mak- 
ing man's wrath turn to His praise. How glad I am that 
it is none of mv business to forbid other servants of the 
Master ; that, on the contrary, I may learn by them and of 
them, and tremble lest, having received more, I should 
profit less. How blessed it is, I say, to be neither less nor 
more than a Scriptural Christian, and as such to love all 
men for Christ's sake, and according to His example, while 
" contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints." 



M* 



VIT.-TESTS. 
1. testi]vio:n'ies. 

If any one will pause and reflect, he will be persuaded 
that there is a marked difference between the spirit of the 
New Testament and that of popular religion, in this re- 
spect : the former is filled with warniugs against false 
systems and false teachers ; the latter is powerless, and 
even voiceless, on such subjects. And why this difference ? 
Simply because the popular religion presents no criterion 
of the sacred ministry. It cannot frame any answer to 
the inquiry, — What makes a minister of Christ ? Hence, it 
bears no testimony, as Scripture does, against those who 
"creep and intrude and climb into the fold," and who 
deny that there is any door by which alone it is lawful to 
enter. Christ is the door, and there is a " way of God," 
which Christ has indicated. In keeping this way of God, 
we honor Christ in His ordinances, and so we use the door. 
In rejecting this way, we follow the example of those 
whom our Lord so severely rebuked. 

(1) There is an order of men, of whom it is true that 
"he that receiveth them, receiveth Him that sent them/ 
(2) On the other hand, there are teachers concerning whom 
it is written, — "Receive them not into your house, neither 
bid them God-speed, for he that biddeth them God-speed 
is partaker of their evil deeds." 

How are we to discriminate between these ? The Apos- 
tolic system gives a logical reply, but popular religion 
knows nothing of the principle, and nothing of the pro^ 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 139 

hibition. It cannot state any criterion by which a disciple 
of Christ may know when or how he is insuring (l) the 
blessing of the one case, or (2) the fearful danger of the 
other. 

2. A HALF-TRUTH. 

If it be said, " The doctrine they preach must be the 
criterion," it supplies a negative rule which I cheerfully 
accept, because such is the precept : " If there come any 
unto you, and hrmg not the doctrine of Christy receive him 
not." If "the Apostles' doctrine" be not the sum and 
substance of any one's teaching, we may be sure the man 
is not of Christ. But then he may even bring the Apos- 
tles' doctrine, and not be necessarily a minister of Christ. 
Lydia, or Phcebe, might have brought the Gospel, and yet 
they would not have been accounted " the ministers and 
stewards " of Christ's mysteries, as were the Apostles and 
elders ; and any good man might profess and set forth the 
truth, and yet be a layman only. The question must recur, 
What is the criterion ? What makes a minister of Christ, 
in receiving whose ministry I receive Christ that sent him f 
What is this mission ? It is said of certain prophets, " I 
sent them not, yet they ran." Now, in the Christian sys- 
tem, what is mission ? What makes a man a true herald 
or ambassador, — one sent, and therefore to be received ? 

3. CONFUSIONS. 

For the present I merely state the fact that popular 
religion has but one answer to all such inquiries. Alike as 
to doctrine and mission, it asks no questions. It accepts 
anything and everything. In medicine, the popular mind 
recognizes something like mission; it requires a diploma 
of any one calling himself a doctor. So it enacts a certain 
qualification, as by law established, for every one calling 
himself an attorney or counsellor. But any one is a min- 



140 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

ister of the Most High, in popular acceptation, if he claims 
to be so ; especially if he has a congregation, large or 
small, that agrees to regard him as such. No matter what 
he teaches about God ; no matter what he makes of the 
Scriptures ; no matter what he says about the Blessed 
Saviour of the world, if he calls himself " the reverend," so 
he must be regarded ; so he is received ; and if he is a 
popular speaker, such he is preeminently in the opinion of 
the masses, who have a profound contempt for men of 
inferior abilities, however orthodox their teaching or holy 
their lives. The whole body of such persons, not except- 
ing the Jewish rabbi, and the mere deist, and the unsexed 
woman-pastor, are popularly regarded alike as " the rever- 
end clergy." From such a motley crowd, not without an 
ill-disguised preference for the less reputable, in many in- 
stances, the State selects " chaplains " for army and navy, 
for public hospitals and reformatories, prisons and peniten- 
tiaries. In the national legislature, and in those of the 
several States, the chaplain is a Papist or a Jew, a pious 
Methodist or a blaspheming infidel, as the caprice of poli- 
ticians may decide. They are derisively elected; scorn- 
fully listened to or disregarded ; and paid with a contempt- 
uous idea that their services are worthless, as they too 
commonly are. Moreover, all the vices and indecencies of 
licentious men, who are preachers by profession, are her- 
alded by the press as the crimes of " clergymen," and as 
evidence that religion is hypocrisy. At the same time, 
and with better show of reason, this Babel of tongues and 
doctrines furnishes conclusive proof to thousands, increas- 
ingly, that there is no such thing as truth. 



4. IMPOTE]S^CE. 

Popular religion is impotent to explain the problems 
thus presented to the vulgar mind, simply because it is 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 141 

responsible for the half-truths that create them. It is dis- 
qualified by its own existence from pointing out the one 
commission for which only, according to its terms, the 
Christian religion is responsible. It cannot say (1) men 
must share in the Apostolic commission in order to be 
Christ's ministers ; and (2) they must teach the Apostolic 
doctrine in order to be worthy ministers of Christ. It 
cannot say this, because it begins by rejecting alike " the 
Apostles' doctrine and fellowship," and because its exam- 
ple teaches others to do the same in every degree of law- 
lessness. Hence, it becomes impossible for it to proclaim 
anew the testimony of St. Peter, which so entirely meets 
the case. It cannot say, consistently, "There shall be 
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in dam- 
nable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, 
. . . and many shall follow their pernicious ways, hy 
reason of whom the loay of truth shall be evil spohen of; 
and through covetousness shall they, with feigned words, 
make merchandise of you."* It cannot point out how forci- 
bly St. Paul illustrates this rebuke of a venal ministry, 
when he says, "They shall hea}^ to themselves teachers 
having itching ears." It cannot adopt the words with 
which St. Jude rebukes these congregations of the itching 
ear as "having men's persons in admiration, because of 
gain or profit." Popular religion has no voice for such 
rebukes, much less would it think of applying them to the 
profit or gain which comes of an ear-tickling preacher, who 
makes " merchandise " alike of pews and pew-holders. 



5. MEKCHA^S-DISE. 

Popular journalism in our great cities habitually treats 
of preaching as something mercantile or professional, pure- 
ly ; and it takes its tone from the spirit of popular religion, 
which I am now rebuking. Reluctantly, I have resolved 



142 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

to make a quotation which illustrates this remark. I do 
so reluctantly, for the deformity which it exhibits is hide- 
ous. I refrain from citing other examples, more hideous, 
with reference to pew auctions and the like. They may be 
regarded as incidental to the system, like the odious sale of 
advowsons under an establishment ; though, if such sales 
are justly urged against establishments, I do not see how 
voluntaryism can justify these, seeing the one class are 
antiquated abuses, and the latter modern improvements. 
What I now quote is no incidental thing. It is the system 
itself, as it takes shape under an utterly false view of the 
Christian religion, the Church, the ministry, and the 
ordinances of the Gospel. It is the outgrowth of what I 
have exposed as the popular idea of the clergy and their 
ministrations. And it is but one expression of this idea 
out of thousands that are appearing every day in our news- 
papers. The American people are filled with this idea; 
they know nothing else. Here it is, — the mercantile view 
which St. Peter predicts, and which popular religion exem- 
plifies. A respectable journalist says : 

" It is absurd for a minister to think of remaining in a 
pulpit unless he can attract a remunerative audience. The 
expenses of the church can only be met by its income, and 
the preacher must do his part in the matter of pecuniary 
profit, or take the consequences. The result is, that if a 
city pastor be not possessed of first-class talent, he will be 
driven to supply its lack by those peculiar vagaries which 
are called ' sensations.' The old-fashioned Gospel truths 
are so unpopular that to make them accej^table requires 
genius, culture, and eloquence. These features render a 
few of this favored class very attractive, while the second- 
rate men rack their brains in vain to get up a style which 
shall be equally successful. This is the secret reason why 
our clergymen exhibit so much distress. The question 
urged by trustees is not, 'How many souls have been 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 143 

converted?' — they can get on without anything in that 
line — but ' Do the pews sell ? ' 'Is the house filled ? ' 
' Can we meet our outgoes ? ' If these be not answered 
favorably, a very St. Paul would have to find a new field. 
The uptown pastors are now compelled, in many instances, 
to see their congregations dwindling. To meet this un- 
pleasant and threatening manifestation, they put forth 
fresh efibrts of vivacity, pungency, and wit ; they trim 
their sentences ; they borrow from Robertson, Melville, and 
other fashionable divines ; they clip bright apophthegms 
from Shakespeare or Mrs. Browning, and spend the week 
in getting up a performance which shall, on Sabbath, 'ina'ke 
people stare^ or titter^ or weep^ or anything else^ so long as 
they come to church. If they fail in this, the reaction is 
terrible. They sink into fearful depths of depression, and 
become objects of pity at once. It is highly probable that 
an increase of earnestness and fervor Avould do much to 
compensate for the lack of genius ; but preachers are slow 
to learn this. They are chained to the copy-book before 
them, and cannot break from its dull proprieties into bold 
speech. I think that a pious ranter would draw well in 
some of our fashionable churches." 



6. LAWLESSIS-ESS. 

Elsewhere I have spoken of the desolating effects of 
sectarianism, as seen in the rural districts ; but it would 
seem that worse results follow it into the great cities. 
Putting both together, how long can we expect the popu- 
lar mind to retain any respect for religion, or any confi- 
dence in the existence of truth ? It is frightful to observe 
how loAV sacred things have fallen already, as exemplified 
in that passing remark of the journalist, "the old-fashioned 
Gospel truths are so unpopular." HajDpy indeed should 
I be could any one persuade me that this is the rash 



144 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

suggestion of an unobservant critic. Alas ! does not the 
religious history and condition of New England forcibly 
illustrate the fearful words, and point to general conclu- 
sions which we may well shudder to contemplate ? A re- 
public " without the true God, and without a teaching 
priest," is very soon found " without law ;" and whether 
our republic be not rapidly approximating to the Commune, 
let my readers decide for themselves. One who has in- 
fluenced the opinions of millions of his countrymen has lately 
expressed himself in words which I tremble to repeat, as 
follows : 

" Theodore Parker dealt with his times, and a man who 
speaks of any other may as well shut his mouth. I am 
tired of hearing of old things^ — of Abraham and Moses, and 
David and Jesus, and of having in my nostrils the incense 
to their memories. The grist has been ground too often, 
and it is worth no more trouble. It is useless to say Abra- 
ham is our father, and Jesus is our Saviour, if we ignore the 
issues and claims of the present." 

There it is ; and this preposterously narrow and ignor- 
ant communism icj regarded as oracular wisdom by millions 
in our country. Men of fortune are endowing " universi- 
ties " to foster and to promulgate such ideas. They de- 
mand of the popular pulpit that such shall be its preachers 
and such its themes ; and popular religion cannot rebuke 
it without a retort from the foul spirit, like that of old, 
" Jesus I know, and Paul I know, hut who are ye ? " 



7. AIN- APPEAL. 

Now I turn to those eminently useful and exemplary 
preachers of " Evangelical " doctrine, who deplore all this 
as much as I do, and I exhort them, " by the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ," to ask whether they do not owe it to 
the cause of Christ to set forth some standard of a true 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 145 

ministry, and to let all men know just what it is. I may 
restate that which I have derived from the Scriptures, 
thus : The tokens of a true minister of Christ are, (1) a 
historical part in the commission which Christ left with His 
Apostles, and (2) the setting forth of the Apostles' doc- 
trine, and nothing less nor more. But, I have allowed for 
the case of Apollos, " eloquent and mighty in the Scrip- 
tures, " and I have not concealed the fact that I honor and 
love many brethren, just as I should have honored and 
loved Apollos, before Aquila met him. I have not sought 
to conceal what I regard as the just claims and the painful 
deficiencies of such a position. I have been candid, in the 
fear of God. It is most painful to my soul, God knoweth, 
to press these inquiries. But the truth has claims beyond 
all other things, at such a crisis as this, and I speak in 
God's name. Am I, then, so grossly mistaken ? Can any 
one correct me ? In case I may have undervalued or failed 
properly to recognize a true commission, how, or by what 
rule, may I correct myself ? What is the criterion ? By 
what law do my "Evangelical" brethren receive or reject 
the claims of those whom they meet on platforms to be 
ministers of Christ ? 

Is it (1) the mere self-assertion ; or (2) is it the assertion 
of a congregation ; or (3) must the congregation have a 
quantum of orthodoxy to qualify its teacher ? What is 
(4) the standard of that quantum / and (5) how does it 
operate when, as often in New England, the pastor owns 
to less than his congregation professes to accept ? Again, 
(6) shall this pastor's official character fluctuate, from day 
to day, with the fluctuations of his flock, or of his own 
mind ? Or (7) can it be stated at what precise point in the 
history of such a man as Theodore Parker he ceases to be 
a Christian minister, and becomes one of those teachers 
against whom the Apostles testify, in the words I have 
quoted? Or (8) does some sort of ordination make, or 
Y N 



146 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

some sort of degradation unmake, a true commission ? 
And (9) what, then, is the essence of such an ordination or 
deposition; and (10) to what Scriptures am I referred as 
stating this essence ? Is it not time to ask such questions ? 
And may I not, without offence, beg a candid consideration 
for the answers I gather out of the Scriptures ? 



8. DISTIIS-CTIOI^S. 

I have made due allowance for exceptional cases, in 
which a ministry, not of historic and Apostolic character, 
may yet be, at least^ " not forbidden," and honored in its 
happy results. I have also shown that such was the min- 
istry of Apollos before he knew " the way of God " more 
perfectly. I have now something more to say of those 
cases, in this country so numerous and so alarming, con- 
cerning which there can be no doubt at all. Scripture does 
speak of " seducers," " deceivers," " false apostles," and the 
like ; and popular Christianity in America agrees to attach 
no importance to this fact. But surely Scripture means 
what it says. Apollos knew " the way of God," though 
not perfectly, before Aquila met him, and before the Apos- 
tles accepted him to their fellowship. And there are thou- 
sands of " eloquent men, and mighty in the Scriptures," in 
America, who occupy his original position essentially. 
Surely I dishonor nobody when I put him with the eloquent 
and mighty Apollos. But there are also thousands who 
have no claim whatever to be considered servants of Christ, 
but rather the reverse. Who and what they are must be 
argued from the portraits which Apostolic prophecy has 
set before us of just such characters. This neglected class 
of Scriptures is fearfully rich and suggestive. I can only 
examine some of them, beo:innino: with the case of those 
who are tenderly treated by the Master, and ending with 
those against whom the Gospel opens the same fires that 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 147 

swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Now, I v\^arii 
my beloved brother who stands Vv^here stood Apollos, before 
Aquila remonstrated with him, that he loses much by his 
position as regards that other class of men. If they be 
rebuked, they always retort with the assertion that their 
commission to preach is as good as yours, and on your own 
vague grounds they seem to prove it. You have, there- 
fore, a deep and practical motive for hearing my appeal. 
It is, as when Moses said, " Depart, T pray you, from the 
tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs^ 
lest ye be consumed in all their sins." 



9. OXE TEST. 

Our Blessed Lord deals very tenderly with one class of 
errorists, who may be found alike in the historic ministry, 
and in that which is man-made and sectarian. He says : 

" Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least 
eommayidments^ and shall teach men so, he shall be called 
the least in the kingdom of heaven." 

And, with this seems to be connected that extraordinary 
text of St. Paul, " Let every man take heed how he build- 
eth thereupon, . . . every man's work shall be made 
manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be 
revealed by fire, etc. ... If any man's work shall be 
burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved ; 
yet so as by fire." And this, again, connects with the in- 
structions of St. Paul to his successor in the Ephesian 
Church, " If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not 
crowned, except he strive lawfully." 

These texts seem to me to cover a whole class of cases 
in which the mixed good and evil are apparent to all men ; 
the cases of Fenelon and Bossuet, for example, and the 
cases of Calvin and Luther, to cite the more illustrious 
examples. Or we may refer to the ignorant and utterly 



148 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

disorderly ministries which have existed, in our own land, 
in the rude and almost barbarous stages of the civili- 
zation of certain regions. We cannot doubt the good that 
was done by any publication of Jesus in connection with 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Yet 
the coarse, untamed enthusiasm connected with these 
ministries have bred Mormonism, and a score of less odious 
sects, and have introduced the evils of women-preachers, 
and the like, among many sober communities of Christians, 
so that they illustrate at once " the goodness and the 
severity of God." He accepts all that is good, everywhere ; 
but He permits evil to work its own confusion, and every 
plant which He himself hath not planted, sooner or later is 
rooted up. 

10. ANOTHER TEST. 

Our Divine Master, who gave us this law, gave us also 
yet another ; and this bears on a different class of men. 
" Many will say to Me, in that day. Lord, Lord, have we 
not prophesied in Thy name ; and in Thy name cast out 
devils, and in Thy name have done many wonderful works ; 
and then will I profess unto them, liiever knew you ; de- 
part from Me, ye that work iniquity,'^'' 

That this strikes those who, having a valid commission to 
do right, do yet abuse it to do wrong, seems to me very 
clear. St. Paul supposes the case of " faith removing 
mountains " without love, and pronounces it empty. So 
Balaam and Caiaphas were false prophets, though they had 
valid commissions to speak truth, and although they did 
actually speak some truth, and prophesy in the name of the 
Lord. So, too, Judas had a commission as valid as St. 
Peter's ; and yet Christ never knew liim^ in the sense of 
personal acceptance. He was " a devil " and the " son of 
perdition," apparently, even when he was called and chosen. 
Christ never manifested Himself unto Judas as " not unto 



^IPOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 149 

the world ;" he was never known of Christ, according to 
His words, — " He that loveth Me shall be loved of My 
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to 
him, . . . and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." It is a frightful truth, therefore, that 
like '^ the scribes and pharisees who sat in Moses* seat," 
men may have authority that must be acknowledged, while 
yet they are to be avoided as pestilent examples, because 
of their awful abuse of their commission. They are des- 
cribed as " saying, and not doing ;" as " perverting the right 
ways of the Lord," alike in word and deed ; " blind guides," 
who neither enter in themselves by the strait gate, nor per- 
mit others to do so; who "hinder" others; and concern- 
ing whom it has been said, " Good were it for that man if 
he had never been born." Thus the Bishops of Rome 
have a valid commission to do what they do not^ and they 
have none at all to do as they do / and of some of the 
pontiffs even Moehler, the pious expounder of a purely 
speculative system of Romanism, has felt himself forced to 
say, " Hell hath swallowed them up." I leave the reader 
to his inferences concerning all those who " teach for doc- 
trines the commandments of men," and " make the word 
of God of none effect through their traditions." Perhaps 
of such heresiarchs those are not the most blameworthy 
who come absolutely in their own name, " deceiving and 
being deceived." But the existence of such a class is not 
admitted, is not even imagined, by the popular religionism 
of America. It is counted bigotry to assert that such texts 
have any practical point. 

11. YET ANOTHER. 

Our Blessed Lord has given us another text in connection 
with these same Scriptures, — " Beware of false prophets, 
which come to you in sheep's clothing; but, inwardly, they 



150 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

are ravening wolves." These, He says, are to be known 
" by their fruits." But as applicable to the perpetual needs 
of the Church, St. Paul has enlarged the warning, and 
given it a practical shape, as follows : " I know this, that 
(1) after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in 
among you, not sparing the flock ; (2) also, of your own 
selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw 
away disciples after them." Here are two classes, — (1) 
wolves from without the historic ministry, and (2) wolves 
from within. No wonder St. Paul says, concerning these 
perils, — " Remember, that by the space of three years^ I 
ceased not to warn every one of you, night and day, with 
tears." 

Now, certain it is that what St. Paul did so tearfully, so 
perseveringly, and so painfully, popular religionism never 
does. It does not know what to make of such warnings, 
though the perils of the infant Church in Ephesus were as 
nothing to those which surround the faithful in America. 
Surely " its own the sheep are not." Surely " it is but a 
hireling." No wonder " the wolf cometh and scattereth 
the sheep." No wonder that the isms of America are 
innumerable, and that they " wax worse and worse." 
While I write, the " ordination " of women to be pastors 
of sectarian congregations is becoming popular, and 
"Evangelical" authorities approve of it, even when such 
pastors preach against the Divinity of Christ. 

" By their fruits shall ye know them," says our Blessed 
Lord ; but even here is a difiiculty, " for Satan himself is 
transformed into an angel of light." Their sheep's cloth- 
ing is very white and very thick ; and as a Judas may be 
within the fold, though Elymas is outside, the peril is such 
that we can well understand St. Paul's long and sorrowful 
exhortations concerning this terrible trial of the faithful. 
In all ages it has proved a peril the most sore and fatal to 
souls, — this " acceptance of men's persons ;" this trying of 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 151 

truth by favorite men, instead of proving all men by the 
truth, and by their conformity thereto in life and doctrine. 
By their fruits they are to be known. And that these 
fruits are not apparent morality and piety ^ is evident from 
the fact that this is " the sheep's clothing " which makes 
the wolf the more dangerous. Therefore St. John gives us 
a criterion, which refers us back to " the Apostles' doctrine 
and fellowship " in few words. He goes back to St. Peter's 
confession, and he expounds it against deceivers, adding, 
" If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine^ 
receive him not into your house, neither bid him God- 
speed, for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of 
his evil deeds." 

Here the mere negative — the fact that he does not bring 
the Apostolic doctrine — is the ground of this rejection. I 
need not say that nothing of the sort is known or tolerated, 
as Christian principle, by popular religionism in America. 



12. APOSTOLIC SAFEGUARDS. 

The Apostles, in applying the maxims of our Lord, first 
built up their system of " Apostolic doctrine and fellow- 
ship," and then they, more and more, referred the disciples 
to this system, in view of those perils of which St. Paul 
speaks. It became, day by day, more manifest as a crite- 
rion and system of safety. Hence, the closing testimonies 
of the Apostolic college, as delivered by St. Peter, St. 
John, and " Judas, not Iscariot," are, more and more, clear 
and emphatic. The Apocalypse makes more precise the 
nature of the awful apostasy which St. Paul had indicated 
to the Thessalonians ; and the last pages of canonical 
Scripture, like the grand Mediatorial Prayer of our Saviour, 
in the conclusion of His ministry on earth, are devoted to 
the unity of the flock of Christ, and to warnings against 
divisions and deceivers. 



152 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

If we look at the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, it will 
be clearly seen that the Apostle did not contemplate the 
possibility of any admission to the sacred ministry, except 
through certain forms and solemnities which he there pres- 
cribes. I do not now stop to ask what these solemnities 
were. Some ordination, at least, recognized by the existing 
Church, was essential. Now, how does the Apostle speak 
of other ministries ? He says : " For the time will come 
when they will not endure sound doctrine, but, after their 
own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers^ having 
itching ears ; and they shall turn away their ears from the 
truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Has not this time 
come ? Is not the itching ear in the people, and their own 
self-made m.an in the pulpit^ the real character of many a 
congregation in New York and Boston ? And, taking even 
what is received as " Evangelical " for the test, do not 
these teachers turn their congregations away from the 
truth ? How many congregations in New England which 
are Socinian now, were " Evangelical " once ? We may 
ask the same question in Holland and in Germany. 

" This know also, that in the last days perilous times 
shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, etc. 
. . . Having a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof: . . . which creep into 'houses, and lead captive 
silly women. . . . Ever learning, and never able to come 
to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and 
Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth : 
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." 
But the popular religionism knows of no such persons. On 
the contrary, the Rev. Messrs. Jannes and Jambres are 
most eloquent preachers, and all the world is advised, by 
all means, to go and hear them. Nobody is reminded that 
they are not, and cannot be, reckoned true ministers of 
Christ. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAT OF GOD. 153 

13. GAINSAYERS. 

Again I ask my brother " Apollos " to relieve my mind 
if I am in delusion. How does he meet these cases? 
What is his criterion? I go on with my record of the 
Scriptures, and beg him to answer when he can. 

Titus was sent to Crete, not only to ordain elders, but to 
give them a charge, when ordained, to " resist gainsayers." 
These were " unruly and vain talkers and deceivers," of 
whom St. Paul says, '' Whose mouths must be stopped ; 
who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they 
ought jioi^ for filthy lucre^s sakeP These professional gen- 
tlemen, in our day and country, would be highly popular 
divines. Woe to the prelate or the presbytery who should 
hint that they earn their salaries on principles which the 
Gospel condemns. They preach what their people Avish to 
hear ; why are they not as good Apostles as the most 
estimable and devoted orthodox divine ? What is the cri- 
terion ? 

But St. Peter is very emphatic. " There were false 
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be 
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in dam- 
nable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." 

" False teachers." What an obselete idea ! " Damnable 
heresies." Have they not as good a right to their opinion 
as you have to yours ? " Denying the Lord that bought 
them." That's your view of the subject. Are not these 
the popular ideas ? But the Apostle adds, " And many 
shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom ' the 
way of truth ' shall be evil spoken of." Precisely so. 
" The way of truth," " the way of God." But what en- 
lightened American is willing to recognize such ways ? Is 
not the truth " what anybody troweth ? " 

" They despise government," says the Apostle. " Pre- 
sumptuous are they, — self-willed ; they are not afraid to 



154 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD, 

speak evil of dignities." But who believes that Christ 
established any government^ or created any dignities in His 
Church ? Certainly this cannot be tolerated by the enlight- 
ened republicans of America. And yet it is the word of God. 
St. Jude reiterates it against " certain men who had crept 
in unawares," who " despised dominion and spake evil of 
dignities," and whom he likens to Balaam, as professional 
preachers, and to Korah, as resisting authority in the 
Church. The sin of Korah, then, as I have shown before, 
may be committed in the Christian Church ; and if so, there 
must be an authorized ministry to gainsay. The story of 
Uzziah, also, in this connection, deserves renewed consid- 
eration. But what is the refuge of the faithful when these 
evil days come ? St. Peter says, " Seeing ye know these 
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the 
error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." 
This throws us back again on the Apostolic pattern. 
" They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship," etc. But what rule is supplied by popular 
Christianity ? 

14. SEPARATISTS. 

St. Jude exhorts us to " contend earnestly for the faith 
once delivered to the Saints," and adds these most practi- 
cal rules : " But, beloved, remember ye the words which were 
spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
how that they told you there should be mockers in the 
last time^ who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 
These be they loho separate the'inselves^'^ — that is, from the 
"Apostles' doctrine and fellowship." "But ye, beloved, 
building up yourselves on your most holy Faith ; . . . keep 
yourselves in the love of God." It is most noteworthy 
that he distinguishes in a marked manner, in view of divers 
classes of " Separatists." E"ote his discrimination. He 
says : (l) " Of some have compassion, making a difference : 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 155 

and (2) others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." 
Yet all these ideas are practically obsolete ; these Scrip- 
tures are a dead letter among the enlightened Christians 
who maintain the Separatisms of America. St. John, how- 
ever, who survived when other Apostles had gone to their 
rest, the Apostle of love and the bosom disciple of the 
Master, how does he testify ? His three epistles are the 
final testimony of the Apostolic spirit against " the many 
false prophets that had already gone out into the world." 
He calls them Antichrists. He says, " They went out from 
us, but they icere not of us^ , , . that they might be made 
manifest that they were not all of us. , , , They are of the 
world ; therefore speak they of the world, and the world 
heareth them ^ we are of God ; he that knoweth God hear- 
eth us ; he that is not of God heareth not us ; hereby Jcnow 
we the spirit of truth and the spirit of 67Tor." Thus, again, 
we are thrown back on " the Apostles' doctrine and fellow- 
ship." If men go out of that ^ it is manifest that they cease 
to represent ^'the way of God." Could anything be more 
explicit ? The expressions from us and of us might be used 
by any sect ; but here it means, from us^ the Apostles^ and 
of us ^ the Apostles, It is an appeal to the Apostolic sys- 
tem as the Avay of God. There is no logic in the whole 
passage, but rather a succession of platitudes, unless we 
understand the argument to imply that the way of God is 
" the Apostles' fellowship ; " and that to 'go out from that 
is to make a manifest surrender of all claims to be Christ's 
ministers and stewards. 



15. A SPECIAL CASE. 

To " the elect lady and her children " he gives advice 
of the same purport, which I have before noted ; but to 
the well-beloved Gains, or Caius, he gives counsels, which 
are somewhat peculiar. He commends the beneficence of 



156 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

this Caius as praiseworthy, and as recognized by the 
Church, and gives him an implied caution as to the sort of 
missionaries whom he should help, evidently with a view to 
the same tests which he had given to the elect lady. But 
there is a very remarkable comment on the conduct of one 
Diotrephes, who seems to have presided over the Church of 
which Caius was a member, and who seems to have forbid- 
den the First Epistle of St. John to be read in the Church. 
He had thus undertaken to overrule the Apostle, " prating 
against him with malicious words." He forbade and ex- 
communicated those who were faithful to the Apostle's 
authority. Here was an incipient Papacy* This Dio- 
trephes " loved to have the preeminence." The Apostle 
says, " If I come, I will remember his deeds." He will act 
as an inspired Apostle should. On the other hand, he 
commends Demetrius as a faithful witness, adding, " Yea, 
and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is 
true." So, then, in this very short epistle he establishes 
the same rule with reference to deceivers, whether inside of 
the Church or attacking it from without* " We are to try 
men by the everlasting principles of Apostolic truth ; not 
truth by the favor of men." " The ^^^postles' doctrine and 
fellowship " is the only test of all who claim our following 
as shepherds of Christ's sheep. 



16. THE WAY OF TRUTH. 

" Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse," 
says St. Paul, " deceivmg and being deceived.'''^ There is a 
gross self-deception in the case of popular errorists, which 
gives us little hope of their reformation ; they *' wax worse 
and worse." What is the law for those who would save 
themselves and their flocks ? The Apostle again prescribes 
(l) " the Apostles' doctrine and (2) fellowship." He adds, 
" But (1) continue thou in the things thou hast learned 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 157 

and hast been assured of, (2) knowing of whom thou hast 
learned them." 

The way of God, then, differs radically from that way 
which is called " Evangelical " in America, as in other 
things, so in this : (1) it recognizes some system, or order, 
by which persons shall become commissioned ministers and 
stewards of Christ's mysteries ; and (2) it recognizes a 
definite message or doctrine which they must profess and 
teach exclusively, in order to be truly ministers of Christ, 
whatever their commission. What these systems of order 
and doctrine may be, we do not, now inquire ; enough, 
system and order are recognized in Scripture, and they are 
not recognized by popular religionists. The want of such 
recognition multiplies the evil daily. Christ is more and 
more derided. "The way of the truth is evil spoken of;" 
" damnable heresies " are privily^ yes, and openly, brought 
in ; " the Lord that bought us " is more and more stoutly 
denied, even by those who call themselves Christians. Is 
this to go on forever ? Are the indifference and the lati- 
tudinarianism which produce such deadly results to be 
glorified as liberal ; and are we to be called uncharitable 
because we testify against them ? 

Supposing, however, that we are all wrong in our view 
and in our use of these Scriptures, let any brother ApoUos, 
if he can do so, show us where and how we are mistaken. 
When did these Scriptures become practically obsolete ? 
What is their practical use, if any ? To what classes do 
they now apply ? How does our brother apply them ? 
How do his congregation understand them ? What plain 
test does he give his people concerning doctrinal truth, and 
the claim to be a " minister and steward ?" 

17. FINAL APPEAL. 

Again, I come back to Scripture. We at least use its 

many testimonies against errorists, while popular religion- 

O 



158 APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

ism makes no use of them at all. We make a diiference, 
indeed, and a very great difference, between those who 
" preach Christ and Him crucified," and those who preach 
another Gospel ; and herein, also, we are Scriptural. The 
latter we " forbid " in the name of Christ ; and the former 
we " forbid not." To the one class we say what St. Paul 
said to Elymas ; to the other we tenderly address ourselves 
as Aquila addressed Apollos. To those we say, " The Lord 
rebuke thee." To these, entreating them as brethren, we 
say, " This also we wish, even your perfection." 

Is it uncharitable to wish the perfection of brethren 
entangled in systems so defective that they cannot, and 
dare not, use the Scriptures I have considered? I have 
known of a pious Congregational pastor endeavoring to 
discipline one of his " dea^cons " who had taken to preach- 
ing, who had gathered a few followers and started an ism. 
He was answered, in a public meeting, by his refractory 
subaltern, " My congregation accept me, and that makes 
me as much a reverend as you are." To this there was no 
reply, there could be none; and the offender triumphed. 
I have known a most able, popular divine, who entered 
upon a controversy with a Romish priest. The Romanist 
evaded all his strong points by keeping him to two ques- 
tions : "What do you preach, and by what authority?" 
And, as the worthy divine could frame no answer consistent 
with his relations to Baptists, Congregationalists, and the 
like, the wily Papist defeated him, at least in the popular 
estimation, before the contest was begun. Is it uncharita- 
ble to wish Apollos a surer foothold than he occupies, in 
view of such antagonists ? The contest with Romanism, 
in America, threatens to become a serious one. All good 
and true men should be prepared for it ; but the maxim of 
this enemy is " Divide and conquer." His victory is more 
than half gained already, if you refuse to find out and to 
adopt the principles of unity laid down in Scripture. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 159 

Observe, I have not spoken of what is called " Episco- 
pacy," nor do I now say that " Presbytery" is not the way; 
I speak only of order and of law. I maintain that Christ 
gave some system to His Church and to His truth. He is 
" not the author of confusion." What, then, is that sys- 
tem ? State it clearly, and hold to it firmly. But let us 
know what it is. 

Is it not time for our beloved " Evangelical " brethren 
in Christ Jesus, who feel the truth of what we thus testify, 
to meet the alarming crisis which now presents itself in 
America, by setting forth something definite, and to which 
they are willing to commit themselves, as the criterion of 
the true minister of Christ ? Let that something be entirely 
Scriptural, and it will command respect. But what can be 
the objection to the simple statement I have made ? Why 
not admit that such a person must have an historical part 
in the original commission, " As My Father hath sent Me, 
even so send I you. Go ye, therefore, ... I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world.^'^ 



VIII.-APOSTOLIC DOCTRINE. 

1. PKELIMINAEY. 

God has spoken ; it is man's first duty to believe what 
God has said. The men of our day do not see this. Li- 
braries are written in these days to prove that what a man 
believes is of no consequence : " Nothing is of any import- 
ance but the inquiry, lohat he does.'^^ It would be impossi- 
ble to find a statement more plausibly false. It assumes 
that faith has no effect on conduct ; it limits man's duties to 
the present, and it leaves out of view all man's relations to 
his Maker. St. John rebukes this miserable platitude in the 
strong words : " He that believeth not God, hath made Him 
a liarP Is that of no consequence ? God hath spoken in 
mercy and in love to man ; it is man's first duty to hear 
and to trust his Maker; all his relations to his fellow 
creatures, and all his duties to himself, depend upon his 
"acquainting himself with God." Every faculty he pos- 
sesses will be turned to mischief unless he pauses at the 
threshold of existence to take his instructions from his 
Maker. Hence the fundamental importance of faith. Man 
is not truly man, " the image of God," till he hearkens to 
his Creator, and answers, "I believe." 

From a sad survey of fractional truth, having discovered 
certain elements of its restored integrity, we may now 
ascend to view "the pattern in the Mount" — the Christian 
system — to which Apollos was introdued when he learned 
the way of God more perfectly. " Hail, Holy Light ! " 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 161 

HoTV glorious is the whole doctrine of Christ ! how sym- 
metrical all the Scriptures in their completeness ! how 
healthful is the soul that receives all that is revealed, and 
which has " no proud looks ! " Would to God the spirit of 
the one hundred and thirty-first Psalm might be imparted 
to modern thought, and that the things which are too high 
for us " might yet be accepted " by that trust in the Lord 
which makes the soul " even as a weaned child " in its sweet 
assimilation of truth, — yes, of all truth. So it is that lie 
presents it to be " inwardly digested ; " and our spiritual 
faculties are developed and strengthened only by this 
heavenly process of growth in grace, in knowledge, and in 
wisdom. 

2. APOLLOS^ AGAIN. 

It seems not without design that the precious name of 
Apollos comes again into view at the close of St. Paul's 
life, and in connection with the Apostolic system which he 
left to the Churches in the pastoral Epistles. " Bring Ze- 
nas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, 
that notliing be wanting unto them." This vras at least 
ten years later than the period when we first became ac- 
quainted with him. He has escaped all the perils which he 
encountered at Corinth ; he is no leader or founder of sect 
Christianity ; he is walking in the way of God, and in the 
Apostles' fellowship ; and St. Paul is anxious to see him 
once more at Nicopolis, to give him his parting counsels, 
and perhaps his final mission. This passage is worth ex- 
amination before we proceed further ; and thus I would 
render it in paraphrase : " Make an effort to meet me at 
Nicopolis, where I have resolved to spend the winter; and 
come as soon as Artemas and Tychicus arrive (whom I 
have sent to take your duty temporarily), but send on 
promptly beforehand Apollos, and Zenas the lawyer, and 
see that nothing may be lacking unto them." It is worth 



162 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

while to note that this follows the injunction : " A man 
that is a sectary after the first and second admonitions re- 
ject, knowing that he is turned inside out^ and being self- 
condemned, transgresseth." Here the first and second ad- 
monitions of lawful authority are recognized as the law. 
The man who turns his own pride or self-will into outside 
view after these injunctions is self-condemned, because 
every sensible man can see that such men " serve not our 
Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly," however " they 
may deceive the hearts of the simple by good words and 
fair speeches." It is significant, also, that Apollos is found 
in company with a " lawyer," or Jewish doctor of the Mo- 
saic system, who seems, like himself, to have learned the 
way of God more perfectly ; who, with him, was " contin- 
uing steadfastly in the Apostles' fellowship." These hints 
are by no means barren. 



3. THE POINT OF HISTORY. 

On the contrary, they are very suggestive, for the 
Apostolic system was now passing into its ultimate stage ; 
the original Apostles were preparing to hand their mission 
over to their successors. Titus was in Crete, and Timothy 
in Ephesus ; these, with Tychicus and others, seem to have 
been previously itinerant coadjutors, and to have served as 
such in St. Paul's vast jurisdiction which he held as the 
Apostle of the Gentiles. At such a period, after ten years, 
we again meet Apollos, and find him faithful, loyal, and 
docile ; and so far from being the leader of a sect, he is 
mentioned with love and favor by the Apostle in imme- 
diate connection with the final law concerning sect-makers. 
This law is delivered with a severity common to all the 
later Apostolic writings, and suited to the times when their 
inspired wisdom was about to be withdrawn, and when the 
infant Church was to be left with no other defence than the 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 163 

operation of its organic principles, " as sheep among wolves." 
Probably the eloquent Apollos and the legal-minded Ze- 
nas had been aiding Titus in Crete to establish order and 
system among islanders who were proverbially indifferent 
to truth, and of whom St. Paul says, "Rebuke them 
sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving 
heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn 
from the truth." Observe these expressions : '^ the truth," 
" the faith." They are recognized theorems, — not problems. 
It is certain this blessed Alexandrian owed it, under God, 
to Aquila, that he had been made to understand these theo- 
rems, and that he was delivered from a position which it 
would have been mischievous to maintain. Accordingly we 
find him thus to the end of St. Paul's testimony, steadfast 
in " the way of God." To " this way of God " we now 
revert as we have already observed it in the inspired sketch 
or scheme of primitive Christianity, as (l) the Apostles' 
doctrine, and (2) the fellowship, and (3) the breaking of 
bread, and (4) the prayers. 



4. THE EAITH. 

The Apostles' doctrine, then, was no ill-defined, frag- 
mentary thing, held in solution among inorganic minds and 
men. From the very first it is recognized as " the doc- 
trine," " the faith," " the whole counsel of God ; " and in the 
later Apostolic Epistles we have express reference to it as 
" a form of sound words," " your most holy faith," " the 
faith once delivered unto the saints." It would be tedious 
to catalogue such expressions ; they abound, and to parade 
them all would be to prepare an index rather than to con- 
struct an argument. Enough, the faith was one and the 
same throughout the Apostolic history, — it was " once de- 
livered," once only. It was as complete when Apollos was 
baptized as when St. Paul, about to be beheaded, ex- 



164 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

claimed, " I have kept the faith." And this being conceded, 
it may suffice, at this stage of our inquiry into " the form of 
sound words," to suggest that St. Paul recognizes its sym- 
bolic or creed form at an earlier period in his Apostleship, 
and that in a very remarkable passage in his Epistle to the 
Romans. The Roman Christians were yet unvisited by the 
great Apostle of the Gentiles; their Church was imper- 
fectly organized ; but " their faith was spoken of through 
the whole world." What was that faith ? Very different, 
alas ! from that which is now professed at Rome ; the 
Apostle says, " God be thanked that you, who were once 
the slaves of sin, have obeyed from your hearts the mould 
of doctrine into which ye were cast." 

It is not doubted that those " strangers of Rome," who 
were among the earliest baptized on the Day of Pentecost, 
were the chief of the believers to whom this Epistle was 
addressed ; consequently, it was then and there at Jerusa- 
lem that, fused and purified by the fires of Pentecost, they 
were poured, like melted gold, into '^ a mould of doctrine," 
of which they had never lost the impress. They were part 
of the very company of original believers who continued 
steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine ; and this doctrine was 
a matrix, or form, from which all believers took the same 
image and superscription. "Their faith was spoken of 
through the whole icorldy"^ it was therefore catholic. The 
Christian faith was everywhere one and the same. 



5. ST. PETER AND BOME. 

This is the only demonstrable connection of the Roman 
Church with St. Peter. To those " strangers of Rome, 
Jews and proselytes," who had repaired to Jerusalem to 
keep the Paschal and Pentecost, he preached his own con- 
fession, — " Christ, the Son of the Living God." On this 
confession he builded them ; into this mould he cast them ; 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 165 

and so long as the Church at Rome took no other shape or 
form of doctrine her faith was catholic. Such may it be 
again ! St. Paul warned that Church that it might apos- 
tatize ; he gave neither to it nor to its pastors any promise 
of infallibility. He said, significantly and prophetically, 
" Thou standest by the faith / be not high minded, but 
fear." But note, it is always ^Hhe faith," ^^ the faith once 
delivered." And " the living stone," which is the kernel 
and heart of that faith, is St. Peter's confession, — the con- 
fession which " flesh and blood had not revealed to him ; 
but the Father of the Christ, which is in heaven." 



6. CEEED-GEBMS. 

(1) That Jesus is the Messiah of whom Moses and the 
prophets did write, and that (2) He is the Son of the great 
I Am ; this is therefore the essence of the Apostles' doc- 
trine ; and in this confession will be found, as in a seed or 
germ, all the articles of the Creed commonly called that of 
the Apostles. There is no Scripture that does not in some 
way arrange itself about these jDrimary truths ; but its next 
formal development is found in the formula of Baptism, as 
delivered by Christ himself, — " The name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This formula 
must, of course, be considered in view of the baptismal use 
to which it was appointed; which involves Christ's headship 
in His mediatorial kingdom ; which implies that kingdom ; 
which implies the remission of sins in that kingdom, and 
the seal of the everlasting covenant. Obviously, before a 
person can be baptized into this Trinal Name, each person 
of the Godhead, in the nature of things, must be introduced 
to his faith. It must be expounded, and around the con- 
fession of St. Peter, taken with this baptismal formula, 
clusters, almost of itself, in such exposition, the j^hraseology 
of the Apostles' Creed. Every article of that Creed may 



166 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

be picked out of the Apostles' "Acts " and Epistles, almost 
in words ; nor is there anything foreign introduced in the 
Symbol called Nicene. Now, the confession of St. Peter 
being the original rock, or the faith, once for all delivered, 
observe how St. Jude recognizes it as that on which the 
Apostolic Church is builded : " Remember the words which 
were spoken before of the Apostles . . . building up your- 
selves on your most holy faith.^'^ This is the rule he gives 
concerning " the faith once delivered ; " this is its criterion ; 
and he enforces it against all those who " separate them- 
selves ; " whom he denounces as " sensual, having not the 
Spirit." And so it becomes manifest that the Apostles' 
doctrine is to be considered (1) in itself, (2) as essentially 
hostile to the heresies which even in the Apostolic day be- 
gan to menace it, while yet they helped to define it. 



7. THE CREED T^ ESSE:NrCE. 

In itself considered, it first presents itself, as has been 
seen, in the confession, (I.) " Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the Living God ; " and (II.) in the formula, " The name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Logi- 
cally, this formula preceded ; and the confession of St. Peter 
arranges itself under its second head ; so that we have, to 
begin with, the following confession : (1) I believe in the 
Father, (2) and in the Son, who is the Messiah, the Son of 
the Living God, and (3) in the Holy Ghost. Here is the 
Creed in essence, as must be perceived. 



8. EXPOSITION^. 

As yet, not one j)age of the New Testament was written, 
but the Faith was a definite thing ; it was preached and 
expounded, and into the One name, of the Three Persons, 



APOLLOS : OK THE WAY OF GOD. 167 

men were baptized. Let us take, as an example, the story 
of the Ethiopian eunuch : 

" Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same 
Scripture, and preached unto .him Jesus, 

" And as they went on their way, they came unto a 
certain water : and the eunuch said, See, here is water ; 
what doth hinder me to be baptized ? 

" And Philip said. If thou belie vest with all thine heart, 
thou mayes^. And he answered and said, I believe that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. " 

This j)assage teaches us many things. Here was a 
man who had never heard of Jesus Christ, and who, in a 
short time, is made a member of Christ, by faith and the 
seal of holy baptism. His confession is, apparently, the 
confession of St. Peter only; but, on reflection, we find 
that it must have been the confession of St. Peter ampli- 
fied by the baptismal formula, and fully drawn out into 
" the Apostles' Creed." For reasons known to textual 
critics, I do not press this point. I do not question the 
received text, but all I require for my argument is con- 
tained in the undisputed portion of the story. Observe 
that St. Philip " preached unto him Jesus ; " but what does 
this imply ? Obviously, Philip taught him (l) that Jesus 
was the person spoken of by the prophets; (2) that He 
was the promised Messiah ; (3) that He is the Son of God; 
(4) that He was made man, suffered and died for us, and 
rose again according to the Scriptures, for all this is con- 
tained in the passage of Isaiah which the preacher was 
expounding; (5) that He had sent forth the Spirit; (6) 
that there is one baptism for the remission of sins ; and 
(7) one Apostolic Church, which, being catholic, admits an 
Ethiopian Gentile as well as a Jew; and so on, till the 
entire Creed is clearly implied in St. Philip's sermon. He 
must have taught him the command of Christ as to bap- 
tism. This is a very significant fact, which I beg my 



168 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

reader to reflect upon. He must, therefore, have taught 
him the baptismal formula ; and if so, he expounded to 
him the Triune God. He must have taught him the 
Atonement, which is so richly unfolded by Isaiah, that the 
Apostles themselves have not made it more clear. He 
must have taught him the nature of justifying faith ; and 
he must have taught him the value and use of sacraments, 
or else the Ethiopian would not have wished to be bap- 
tized. All this cannot be gainsaid ; but it is worthy of 
note how much is implied in the collocation of words in 
this beautiful story. (1) "Philip preached unto him 
Jesus ;'^'^ (2) the eunuch said, "Here is water; what doth 
hinder me to he baptized?'^'* To "preach Jesus," then, 
faithfully and according to the Evangelical pattern, is not 
to make light of baptism, but to explain the Atonement in 
connection with the covenant, and baptism as its seal. 
To " preach Jesus " as the Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sins of the world, is to preach Plim in connection with 
his own words, " Ye must be born of water and of the 
Holy Ghost." Such, then, is genuine obedience to His 
command, " Go ye, teach all nations, haptizing them." To 
"preach Christ, and Him crucified," is, therefore, to preach 
the whole Christ, in His word. His works. His sacraments, 
and His kingdom. Hence, it is not " Evangelical," but 
the reverse, to magnify Christ verbally, while decrying, as 
carnal and of little value, the sacraments by which He 
seals and imparts to men all the benefits of His cross and 
redemption, in the form of a covenant. 



9. THE SYMBOL. 

It would conflict with my purpose to inquire whether 
there is any probability that the Apostles composed that 
symbol which, filtered througli divers languages, reaches us 
as the Apostles' Creed. But it must be evident that the 



/ 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 169 

two formulas I have considered could not be combined and 
explained by any Apostolic teacher, without leading to 
precisely equivalent confessions, if not in words, yet in 
substance. Let us take, then, the groundwork, as above 
given, and see how it takes form in the expressions verb- 
ally quoted from Apostolic Scripture : 

(1) I believe in one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and 
that the worlds were formed by the word of God ; (2) and in one 
Lord Jesus, the Messiah, His only begotten Son, (3) who was made 
flesh, and dwelt among ns, whose birth was on this wise : When, as 
His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, 
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, and he knew her not 
till she had brought forth her first-born son, (4) against whom Herod 
and Pontius Pilate^ with the Gentiles, were gathered together ; who 
was taken and with wicked hands crucified and slain, who was laid 
in a sepulchre, (5) and the same day was in Paradise, for He was not 
yet ascended unto His Father; whose soul was not left in hell, 
neither did His flesh see corruption ; whom God raised up, who rose 
again the third day according to the Scriptures ; (6) who ascended up 
into heaven, and is on the right hand ol God, the Lord God Omnipo- 
tent ; (7) and He shall j iidge the quick and the dead at His appear- 
ing imd His kingdom ; (8) and I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, 
the Spirit of Life, (9) and in the Church — many members, yet but 
one body — the household of God, built upon the foundation of the 
Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief comer- 
stone ; the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, (10) and in one baptism, 
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins ; (11) and that 
the dead shall be raised, and t^iat every one shall receive the things 
done in his body, and that God shall quicken our mortal bodies ; and 
(12) that the gift of God is everlasting life. Amen. 

These twelve articles, not with violence or injury to 
their connection and spirit, bat with sacred reference there- 
to, are thus brought together from the Apostolic Scriptures, 
and in their very words ; and they will be recognized by 
all candid Christians as the system which pervades all 
those Scriptures. The ease and simplicity with which this 
symbol may be thus collected from the Xew Testament, 
and proved to be a harmony of its whole spirit, is not only 
8 P 



170 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

a test, but a demonstration of our faith. Here is the 
framework of " the whole counsel of God," the faith 
once delivered ; and, as I have shown, it existed as the 
rock and foundation of the Church before one page of the 
New Testament was written. 



10. CAI^ONICAL SCRIPTUEES. 

The Christian faith, then, is the faith of the New Testa- 
ment, but it was the faith of the Apostolic Church before 
it was in the New Testament. This is important to be 
observed, because it brings out the all-important truth that 
the canon of New Testament Scripture depends on a pre- 
existing visible Church. But for its witness and testimony, 
there would be no canonical Scripture. All the books of the 
first century which claim to be inspired productions or 
Apostolic writings, would be, to this day, subject to the 
capricious opinions of any age, and the actual Scriptures 
would be without any other character than that which the 
fashion of one's times might impart to them. But the Apos- 
tles' doctrine is, in fact, delivered to us by the Apostles' 
fellowship ; and we have its testimony to that record of the 
faith which we call the New Testament, with which the 
symbolic language of the Church must always agree. 
And this agreement must be thorough, so as to harmonize 
all Scriptures, and to clash with none. To this test false 
systems refuse submission. 

11. A FOEM OF WOEDS. 

References to a substantial outline of doctrine based on 
St. Peter's confession and the formula of baptism are so 
specific and so immerous in the Apostles' writings, that it 
seems quite unnatural to doubt that a catechetical system, 
at least, already existed. It is thus that St. Paul, in his 
parting charge to Timothy, refers to the faith. He speaks 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 171 

of its formal expression as something wliicli Timothy had 
been taught by himself : " Hold fast the form of sound 
words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, 
which is in Christ Jesus." The catechising which St. Luke 
refers to in the discipleship of Theophilus, harmonizes with 
this idea, and yet more, St. Paul's reference to the analogy^ 
or " proportion of the faith," which he will not permit 
even " prophets "to present piecemeal, picking out their 
favorite verity, and neglecting the harmony and complete- 
ness of the faith, as do all sectaries. Tliis violation of 
proportion in doctrine makes, in the end, some monstrous 
heresy out of a partial truth; and the anxiety of the 
Apostles to keep the whole faith ever fresh and operative 
in the hearts of believers, seems inconsistent with any other 
system than that of an elementary catechism, or '' form of 
sound words," which was common to the Churches. In 
fact, their commission, " Go ye and disciple all nations," 
seems to make some form of catechising necessary ; and 
what their catechetical teaching was, may easily be inferred 
by the story of St. Philip and his Ethiopian convert. 



12. PROPORTION. 

Be this as it may^ all I insist on is this point : the Apos- 
tolic faith " once delivered to the saints " was a thing com- 
plete, known and understood as such, in its analogy or 
proportions, and constantly referred to as something not 
to be marred, vitiated, or taken in fractions. This was 
the case before one page of the New Testament was. writ- 
ten ; and yet the piebald Christianity of our days is desti- 
tute of any such common faith, though thousands of copies 
of the New Testament are to be seen in the hands of its 
poorest adherents. Innumerable Sunday schools may be 
found in the land, in which no child learns any catechism 
of the faith ; in which the very teachers, if asked to give 



1Y2 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

a summary of the belief of Christians, would be unable to 
make any answer that would not mar " the proportion of 
faith." No "form of sound words" is taught to disciples, 
young or old. I have repeatedly heard respectable divines 
express their delight in the Nicene Creed, having heard it 
for the first time^ in our Liturgy, on some occasion that 
had attracted them to the service. Such facts, and many 
more which might be mentioned to illustrate the condition 
of popular Christianity, furnish a striking contrast to the 
primitive Christianity, as reflected from the Scriptures. 



13. THE WORD OF GOD. 

Sergius Paulus desired to hear " the Word of God " 
from Barnabas and Saul. Elymas, who withstood them, 
immediately sought to " turn away the deputy from the 
faith ; " and he was promptly rebuked by St. Paul, because 
he "ceased not to pervert the right ways of the Lord." 
Here we miss much of the force of the passage, because 
" the Word of God " conveys to modern ears the idea of 
the Bible or of the Gospel generally. But there is point 
in all these expressions. They mean one and the same 
thing specifically; that is, "the way of God," which 
Apollos learned from Aquila, in its completeness, and 
which he knew beforehand only fractionally. Sergius 
wished to hear "the Word of God;" the Apostle preached 
to him " the faith ; " and he would not suffer any perver- 
sion of " the right ways of the Lord." These three ex- 
pressions, therefore, mean one and the same thing. 



14. THE FAITH A TRUST. 

" Watch ye ; stand fast in the faith." So speaks St. 
Paul to the Corinthians, whom he had warned against 
divisions. Again, to the same Corinthians, he writes : 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 173 

" Examine yourselves whether ye be iu the faith." lie 
commends his dear Philippians for their one spirit and one 
mind, "striving together for the faith of the Gospel." To 
the Colossians he says: "If ye continue in the faith, 
grounded and settled." Time and space fail me to collect 
all the expressions of a similar character which abound in 
the Apostolic writings. To Titus the Apostle speaks of 
"the faith of God's elect," and his parting salutation is, 
" Greet them that love us in the faith." Yet more em- 
phatic, in the same epistle, is his address to " Titus, my 
own son, after the common faith ;'^'' and his twofold refer- 
ence to " soundness in the faith." Surely, they dreamed 
of no indefinite, unstable, or divided faith, who wrote and 
spoke in this fashion. " That good thing which was com- 
mitted unto thee, keep, by the Holy Ghost," says St. Paul 
to Timothy, and, " the same commit thou to faithful men." 
And, when he says of himself, " I have kept the faith," 
how much is implied as to the value of such fidelity in the 
sight of God. Many good men, in these days, think of 
everything else in their dying hours, and talk of all that is 
pleasant in their personal experiences, but make little of 
" the faith " as a definite deposit, to which they have borne 
testimony. They show little anxiety to hand it down to 
others, in full proportion, unaltered, unimpaired by any 
private or partisan views; in all its articles whole and 
un defiled. Alas ! great Churches have failed to keep it in 
its purity. In our day there are comparatively few among 
professed believers, with whom to be " sound in the faith " 
is a matter of great importance. " If one is only a good 
m.an (such is the popular idea), God will never ask him 
about his creed." But our Lord asked, most significantly, 
" When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith on 
the earth ? " He will ask about it, therefore. 

If the popular idea be true, then " the way of God " is 

not to be learned from the Scriptures. Keeping the faith 

P* 



174 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

has nothing to do, according to such, with the ability to 
say, " I have fought a good fight." 



15. AISTAGONISM. 

Having spoken of the Apostles' doctrine, in itself, it 
remains to look at it (2) as essentially opposed to heresies, 
which, nevertheless, serve to define it. That is, indeed, a 
very comfortable thought, amid the abounding isms of our 
day, which is recorded, to inspire our patience, by St. 
Paul : " For there must be also heresies among you, that 
they which are approved may he m^ade m,anifest among 
you." God suffers the faults of wilful and contentious 
men to take the shapes which they do for the trial of others, 
whether they "stand fast in the faith." This part of 
Christian soldiership, then, is dear in the sight of God; 
but would any one infer this from popular religion ? Over 
and over again have I read of assemblies in which pro- 
fessed Christians of divers names and confessions have 
presented themselves before an enlightened public as a 
beautiful illustration of their " common Christianity," 
though it was notorious that not a few of them difiered 
from the rest as to the very essence of the Divine nature ; 
so that they did not even believe in the same God. Swe- 
denborgians and Socinians hold office in the same " Bible 
societies" with devout Presbyterians, Baptists, and Method- 
ists; and I have known prayer to be dispensed with at 
their anniversaries, as obviously unbecoming, where diver- 
sity was so prominent. And this was truly,.logical, so far ; 
but where is the consistency of such unions, for the cir- 
culation of a book which asserts a " common faith," and 
which is strictly logical in condemning all who are not 
" sound in the faith ? " Let us see how the New Testament 
teaches us to regard any departure from "the Apostles' 
doctrine." 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 175 



16. PRECEPTS. 

" Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause 
divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye 
have learned, and avoid them." Such is the plain lan- 
guage and precept of St. Paul. "From such withdraw 
thyself," is his admonition to Timothy. So, also, he says, 
" Shun profane aild vain babblings, for they will increase 
unto more ungodliness." He instances Hymenseus and 
Philetus, " who, concerning the trut\ have erred . . . and 
overthrow the faith of some." Here is no room for Pilate's 
question, "What is truth?" Consequently, he will not 
suffer any tampering with some who believed that " the 
resurrection is past already." The Apostle speaks of the 
truth and the faith as of a deposit, which no steward has a 
right to waste or diminish in the least. In our days let a 
" Philetian " sect be founded, consisting of able men, ortho- 
dox in every other respect, is there any one among our 
popular divines who would think it worth while to "with- 
draw from them," merely because they had a whim about 
the resurrection as purely spiritual, and already accom- 
plished, e. ^., in our rising from dead works to newness of 
life ? Such a sect would claim to be more " spiritual " 
than orthodox believers ; and their claim would be popu- 
larly allowed, provided they were eminently respectable 
people. But, again I say, such is not " the way of God," 
if we are to gather it from the Scriptures. " This charge I 
commit unto thee, son Timothy . . . that thou by them 
mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good 
conscience; which some having put away concerning the 
faith have made shipwreck : of whom is Hymenaeus and 
Alexander ; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they 
may learn not to blaspheme." Such is another tonic pas- 
sage from St. Paul ; and it is the more worthy of note be- 
cause it contains a reference to faith subjective^ and to the 



176 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

faith ohjective ; a pure, believing conscience, and the faith 
on which it lays hold, being alike required. Only a few 
paragraphs afterward he demands of deacons that they 
should " hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience," 
where the same ideas are repeated. 

In the Epistle to the Galatians, our excellent transla- 
tion partly fails in rendering these distinctions, and even 
creates them where they do not exist. • " Before the faith 
came," says the Apostle, " we were kept under the law, shut 
up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed." 
In both cases, the faith here means the Gospel ; and here, 
and elsewhere, in such passages, it is evident that the 
Gospel is viewed as a definite object, which personal faith 
must accept. Hence the Apostle's reproach of the foolisli 
Galatians ; but, in our days, if personal faith be professed, 
no great account is made of the objective faith. That 
may be more or less in popular opinion without peril. It 
may be a Sabellian deity, — who cares ? It may be " an- 
other Gospel ; " all the whole twelve Articles of Trent, and 
the two of Pio Nono besides, — what of it ? There are no 
" foolish Galatians " nowadays. A Bostonian has col- 
lected " the prayers of ages," and presents them in a very 
handsome volume, wherein Marcus Antoninus and St. 
Chrysostom, Dr. Channing and the Jesuits, Wesley and 
"Swedenborg, are equally held up to Christian aj^proval, 
though it is certain that the very first words of prayer, '' O 
God," must haA^e been used by such persons with no more 
agreement than is to be found among the most antagonistic 
creations of Polytheism. 

The hindering of marriage and the Judaizing precepts of 
abstinence from meats and drinks, which St. Paul speaks 
of to Timothy as *' doctrines of devils," would be regarded 
as of very little consequence in our days. They are 
applauded when connected with such apparent piety as is 
often seen among modern monks of Rome. Yet many of 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 177 

these poor men strain at a gnat about fastings and bodily- 
exercise, while they daily practise all the ungodliness which 
is counted for morality by Alphonsus de Liguori, and by 
the popes who have made him a saint and a doctor of the 
Church. " Voluntary humility " and romantic self-denials 
have a " show of wisdom," but even " the foolishness of 
God is Aviser." God's laws are adapted to His creatures. 
To surpass them in sanctity is a vain attempt. Indeed, 
this Judaizing seems always to react into practical ungod- 
liness, and hence it should be less surprising that inspired 
foresight denounces it so severely. The Apostle intro- 
duces his denunciation as follows : " The Spirit declares 
expressly that in after times some will depart from the 
faith." How sensitive is the Spirit of God to any such 
departure ! 

17. NO COMPEOMISES. 

"It is impossible for God to lie." The pillars of the 
universe rest on this characteristic of the Almighty. " He 
cannot deny Himself." But what a contrast is exhibited 
by man in this popular indifference to error. God may par- 
don error, for Christ's sake, and He is slow to anger, and 
abundant in mercy. But the preciousness of truth in the 
sight of God is wonderful, as it is revealed in the Scriptures 
of truth. " No lie is of the truth ; " and hence the Apos- 
tles' doctrine, which is from Him who came into the world 
to bear record of the truth, must be professed whole and 
entire by the Church, and without any admixture. Indif- 
ference to truth cannot consist with a true Christianity. 
" The true light now shineth ; " and he is very near to cru- 
cifying Christ afresh who still asks, with Pilate, " What is 
truth?" 

" Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him 
for righteousness." Out of that faith of Abraham all that 
adorns the world has proceeded. So much has faith to do 
8* 



178 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

with man's development and happiness, even in this world. 
In Abraham, as in his seed, " all nations are blessed " 
indeed, just in proportion as his faith has really penetrated 
them. He, then, is *the only friend of man, who, like 
Abraham, is " the friend of God." 

It should also be observed that the Apostle of love, the 
beloved disciple, is not less emphatic, as has been elsewhere 
shown, in the denunciation of error than St. Paul himself. 
Love in the Christian system is preeminently the love of 
Christ. It "rejoiceth in the truth," and the love of man- 
kind is manifested chiefly in bringing them to the faith. 
Hence, the beloved and loving John is a " son of thunder " 
when he contends for the truth. "Little children, keep 
yourselves from idols." Such is his entreaty. Idols may 
be set up in the mind ; they may be images, though not 
graA^en, nor molten. And th^ context shows that idolatry, 
with God, is any false religion. " We know that the Son 
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that 
we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that 
is true, even in His Son Jesus, the Messiah. This is the 
true God and eternal life." On this rock His foot is 
planted. He identifies it with that which His disciples had 
"heard from the be2:innino;," and to those who abide in 
Him in this faith He confines the hope of "not being 
ashamed at His coming." The loving spirit of St. John is 
not a weak, compromising, undistinguishing tenderness to 
error, like that which is the sickly and degenerate growth 
of our days. He reminds the Church, which he was now 
about to leave deprived of the original Apostolic college, 
but richly endowed with their doctrine, that the unction of 
the Holy Ghost, which had been given them, had already 
taught them all things ; that it had taught them truth and 
no lie, and that to abide in this truth is to abide in Christ. 
Of contradictory error he says accordingly, "Who is a 
liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ ? He is 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 179 

Antichrist that denieththe Father and the Son." Observe 
that here he uses the test words of St. Peter's confession. 
On this rock the Church must stand forever. 



18. THE PILLAR A1S"D GROUND. 

I have reserved for a concluding remark that famous 
passage about " the pillar and ground of the truth." I do 
not think it weakened in the least by the form which 
modern criticism has given to it. Supported, as it seems 
to be, by primitive exposition, I adopt the new reading, in 
all candor, as follows : " These things I write to thee, that 
thou mayest know how to behave thyself as a pillar and 
support of the truth in the house of God, which is the 
Church of the Living God." Here is an architectural 
figure wrought out of the promise of Christ to build His 
Church upon the rock of His own Divinity and Messiah- 
ship, as witnessed in a good confession. On this rock, 
every Christian being built up as a lively stone, the temple 
grows, — the temple of the visible Church; and in this 
temple such office-bearers as Timothy are placed to be 
pillars and under-girders of the truth. In this house of 
God, therefore, and in the Apostles and Apostolic men 
who were its noblest pillars from the beginning, the truth 
is enshrined, so that the Apostles' doctrine must always, 
from the beginning, be sought and found in the Apostles' 
fellowship, with which Christ has promised to continue " to 
the end of the world." He, then, is a pillar and support 
of the truth formally, who is thus built upon the founda- 
tion of the Apostles and Prophets ; who is thus built upon 
Christ, the chief comer-stone. But Apollos, in his original 
position, is not part of the Apostolic house. He is not a 
pillar and prop of the truth. He is not hidlded upon it 
at all. Granted — he is a pioneer and index, like his mas- 
ter, John. Therein "we rejoice; yea, and will rejoice." 



180 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

He is, nevertheless, no " pillar and ground " of that which 
he knows but imperfectly, and in which jdIous lay men and 
women may be his teachers. In fact, his position is one 
perilous to truth. His is an example which, if persisted 
in, will multiply confusions. It is not the way of God. 
Hence, St. Paul would not tolerate anything like it at 
Corinth. Hence, Apollos abandoned it as soon as he could. 
Hence, he refused to become the leader of a sect, and so he, 
too, became a pillar and support. All Apostolic ministers, 
in like manner, contribute to the strength of this House on 
the Rock ; and the gates of Hades prevail not against it, 
because a succession of faithful men is perpetuated in it by 
the care and election of Christ. 



19. ELECTION. 

I have used this word advisedly. I do not propose to 
discuss it ; but, whatever else it may mean. Scripture does 
reveal to us the fact that there is an election of God by 
which, from age to age, men are called into the visible 
Church, and made its pillars and supports. Thus, Christ 
fulfils His promise to be " always, and to the end," present 
with His " messengers." Whether these messengers, be- 
sides fulfilling this great ofiSice, always give diligence, 
personally, to make their own " calling and election sure," 
and hence to ensure salvation, is another question. Per- 
haps, " having preached to others," and having served to 
the perpetuation of the way of truth, some of them have 
" become castaway." It is a serious reflection that Apos- 
tles have perished, and that Samaritans have been, per- 
sonally, saved; yet the lost Apostle ministered truth to 
others, and the saved Samaritan "knew not what he 
worshipped;" he knew God and truth, that is, very 
imperfectly. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 181 



20. NO PROBLEM. 

If these views of the Apostles' doctrine be Scriptural, 
there is nothing essentially novel to be yet discovered as 
to the way of God. In illustration of truth ; in fresh 
applications of truth; in the exposition of Scripture, we 
freely admit that there is much yet to be drawn forth from 
what is in substance known. Nay, we admit that there is 
a great reserve of Scripture (in the Apqcalypse, for ex- 
ample) which is waiting to become better understood ; 
just as the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians were 
reserved, in some degree as marrow is stored in the bones, 
to renew the Church after long disease. But, " the faith 
once delivered " is the groundwork of all possible discovery, 
and the limit of all healthful thought. All real progress in 
scientific theology illustrates this principle ; whatever has 
been contrary to it has not been " progress," but has soon 
developed itself into corruption. 

Yet, let nobody imagine that the human mind is made 
to stagnate in orthodoxy. The world, for ages, knew 
nothing of the lens. Its use has taught mankind a new 
meaning for an old text : " Verily, Thou art a God that 
Mdest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." What un- 
discoverable glories were concealed from the naked eye, 
until sluggish man learned how to magnify its power. At 
last he invented the telescope and microscope, and then he 
saw more of Him whose name is " Wonderful." But those 
glories of heaven and earth were all there in the system 
which God had made and ordained from the beginning. 
So the system of faith is complete in the Creed and in the 
Scriptures. Man's glasses have not created a new sun and 
moon, nor a single star, nor will they add a new truth to 
revelation. But the hidden glories and harmonies of 
revealed truth are a universe even yet imperfectly ex- 
plored. 

Q 



182 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

The history of the Church of Christ illustrates the fact 
that characters the most diverse, and genius the most 
exalted, may find room and scope for all their powers with- 
in the limits prescribed by faith. What heresiarch can be 
compared to the great Church fathers of the East and 
West ? No two of them were alike ; their equals have not 
been seen among the moderns ; yet the genius of a Chrysos- 
tom and that of a Jerome found the amplest field for 
originality within the acknowledged bounds of the Apos- 
tles' doctrine. Those bounds impose no trammels, they 
serve only as a defence against " rushing in where angels 
dare not tread." They are not less useful to real wisdom 
in warning off from the shores where sirens sing, or where 
harpies only inhabit. Beyond those limits nothing awaits 
the adventurer but a merited admission into the limbo of 
vanity, — the paradise of fools. 

How, then, says one, do you account for the pre- 
cept, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good ?" 
Thank God, the faith of the believer is no blind super- 
stition ; it is open-eyed, and courts investigation. Every 
Christian is privileged, nay, he is bound to copy the noble 
Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily, whether the 
things testified by the Apostle were so. But this is the 
key to the whole system of proving the truth : Jlrst^ 
they heard the Apostle's testimony; second^t\iQj compared 
it with the Scriptures. So the pupil receives the Coper- 
nican system ; he is not left to study the stars unguided 
and problematically; the professor gives him its theory, 
and then helps him to verify it, and to assure himself that 
it is no " cunningly-devised fable." The abuse of private 
judgment consists in the foolish claim to learn the solar 
system, without any preconception of it ; a process which 
it took the world five thousand years to bring to a satis- 
factory result. The right use of private judgment is to 
accept competent testimony in favor of presumptive truth, 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 183 

and then to learn the process by which presumptive truth 
is verified. If these are insufficient, reject its claims ; if 
otherwise, accept it, or be a fool. " As ye have therefore 
received Christ, so walk ye in Him ; rooted and built up in 
Him, and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught y 
abounding therein, with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any 
man spoil you, through philosophy and vain deceit, after 
the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in 
Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily." 

The processes of true science are those of the Church of 
Christ. She comes to us with a historical creed, and pre- 
sents it to her children as a theorenn; having stated it, she 
opens wide the Scriptures and all sources of true knowl- 
edge, and bids them search " whether these things are so." 
On the final and practical acceptance of truth, intelligently 
and lovingly, depends one's personal salvation. This right 
of private judgment, then, is essential to one's account- 
ability. For the abuse of private judgment he is respon- 
sible to God, who has enabled him to " know the truth," if 
he will. In a word, the " Christian proves all things," not 
as a doubter, but as a believer ; that is, he accepts the 
theorem, on Apostolic testimony, as a little child ; \vX he 
works it out, in a loving spirit, as he attains the full stature 
of a man. So he comes to know what he believes ; so he 
says to Lois or Eunice, who taught his infant faith by the 
catechism, " Now I believe, not because of thy saying ; 
for I have heard Him myself, and k:now that this is indeed 
the Messiah, the Saviour of the world." 



IX.-APOSTOLIC FELLOWSHIP. 

1. IS CHRIST DIVIDED? 

Apollos was not suffered to profess even the Apostles' 
doctrine, apart from " the Way of God," in the Apostles' 
fellowship. We have noted the fact, and one plain reason 
for it, — this reason, namely, that " Christ is divided " by 
the divisions of His followers. Rather, since Christ cannot 
be so divided, they who assert a sectarian Christianity do, 
so far, divide themselves from His mystical body here on 
earth. Apollos, with all his faith and piety, was in a con- 
dition of imperfect fellowship with the Church's head and 
foimder until he obeyed the teaching of Aquila and Pris- 
cilla, and entered on the way of God " more perfectly." It 
is not possible to find a stronger case of justifiable igno- 
rance than his ; but it only proves that such anomalies may 
exist as respects the visible Church. They may exist, and 
do exist innocently, too, in such cases, and until conscience 
is enlightened as to the grand principle of unity. But this 
grand principle is as unchangeable as God himself. It 
pleased Him, who gave us the truth, to bequeath His truth 
to the world, not as the doctrine of a school, as did Socra- 
tes or Zeno with their doctrines. He founded an organized 
society, and intrusted to its care the deposit of the faith ; 
enriched it with the holy Scriptures, and chartered it with 
His promises, even to the end of the world. 

All mistakes in this matter originate by a begging of 
the question. It is assumed that, because there is no 
"written constitution" in the New Testament, therefore 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 185 

there was none imparted to the Church by Apostles, before 
the Gospels and Epistles were given. I am demonstrating 
that these contain such references to an existing system as 
enable us to be sure of its nature, and even of its details, 
without reference to history. But, if all history confirms 
my demonstration — I can't help it ; only, my argument is 
none the worse for that. I defy any one to explain the 
admitted facts of the second century without establishing 
the system which I am proving from Scripture. 



2. THE CANDLESTICKS. 

In his messages to the Seven Churches, Christ has taught 
us that not even corruptions of His truth can deprive the 
organic Church of His presence, His visitations of disci- 
pline, and His reforming Spirit. Hence, as the corruptions 
of Sardis and Laodicea did not drive Christ away from 
them, it is the duty of the faithful in corrupt Churches, not 
to go out of them, but to continue in them, and to " hear 
what the Spirit saith to the Churches," and so to work in- 
ternal reforms by returning \.o primitive principles, to " first 
faith " and " first love." In one instance — and one only — 
is the command given to " come out " of an Apostolic 
Church ; and that is delayed till the hour of her utter apos- 
tasy and destruction, when she is past repentance. Even 
in this case the command to leave a particular Church — 
that of Rome, or any other — cannot imply that the Apos- 
tles' fellowship is to be abandoned, while the Lord pre- 
serves it elsewhere. To " come out " from Babylon is a call 
addressed to Christ's people. Such faithful people, then, 
will be found even in Babylon up to her last hour; and no 
stronger proof can be given of the long-sufiering of Christ 
with reference to His promises to be always with His Church 
and with His Churches, and especially with those who 
"walk in white and keep their garments," as even in Sardis. 



186 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

The seven golden candlesticks, some of them representing 
corrupt Churches, but all endowed with Christ's presence, 
present the most instructive symbol of organic unity that 
can be imagined. In the right hand of our great High 
Priest, thus manifesting himself as the mystical Body of the 
whole Church, are the " seven stars." Now, these " seven 
stars " are the angels^ — that is. Apostles of the Churches. 
Some of them are fearfully upbraided, and threatened with 
extinction ; but, bad as they are, their Apostleship is ac- 
knowledged, and made the foundation of the Master's ap- 
peal, — an appeal to strengthen things remaining, and to 
return to the primitive rule. The angel of the Church of 
Ephesus is severely rebuked, and threatened even with the 
removal of his candlestick ; but, with all his faults, his 
Apostleship is recognized, and he is praised for having ex- 
posed the false mission of some who pretended to he Apostles 
when they were not. The whole doctrine of these seven 
messages, as bearing on unity, is most clear and emphatic. 
They forewarn us prophetically against the awful corrup- 
tions of ages, and teach us how Christ will preserve His 
own laws and fulfil His own promises at this day, when the 
Christian Church is in the very condition thus foreshown, — 
a condition of Apostolic unity preserved and magnified by 
the great Head of the Church, even when few candlesticks 
shine with Evangelical lustre, and when only here and there 
the pure light of His presence is reflected from the stars in 
His right hand. 

3. EXAMPLES. 

To continue "steadfast in the Apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship," after the example of first love and first works, 
is still a duty, then, though we live in Sardis, or Laodicea, 
or Thyatyra, or Philadelphia, or Smyrna. The Apostles of 
these last two Churches are commended alike for their 
primitive doctrine and fellowship ; for rejecting fellowship 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 187 

with the concision^ and adhering to the true circumcision^ 
as St. Paul had taught ; while they kept the faith also. 
But the Others had corrupted Apostolic doctrine, and yet 
are recognized as objects of visitation, long-suffering, and 
loving-kindness, because they still retained the fellowship 
of the Apostles. They were in the precise position of 
Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley, at the epoch of the Re- 
formation. These bishops, even while they shared in the 
corruptions of Rome, were the angels of the Churches in 
England; and though defiled in doctrine, and far fallen 
from Evangelical purity, the Spirit visited them as such, 
and gave them grace " to strengthen the things that re- 
mained," and to restore the primitive estate of their can- 
dlesticks. In the same manner He is now callino; on the 
bishoj)S of Latin Europe, and perhaps for the last time. 
But His presence and His power to work internal reforma- 
tion, through His own ministers, has been proved in Eng- 
land, as it is foreshown and promised in these Epistles of 
Christ himself to the Seven Churches. 

Nothing in the Scriptures, then, justifies a breach of 
unity. While I write, the ^' Old Catholics " of Germany 
are planning a reformation within the Church, like that of 
England, in full recognition of this principle; and every- 
body sees that herein is their strength. If they forfeit the 
great principle of Apostolic fellowship, they will be like Sam- 
son when he was shorn. It was this unhappy forfeit that 
brought down Luther to be the founder of a sect, when he 
seemed just on the point of becoming the thorough restorer 
of the Latin Churches. 

4. SECTARIA]^ CONTRASTS. 

I have taken up this subject of "Apostolic fellowship" 
at the modern end, just where it meets and offends the 
prejudices of popular Christianity. And I have done so to 
give roundness and completeness to my exhibition, in former 



1S8 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

chapters, of the inorganic impotency of this popular Chris- 
tianity. Compare it, now, with the meanest Church, like 
Sardis, which still retains its candlestick and its star in the 
visible unity and fellowship of the Apostolic Church. 
Such a Church can regain all its primitive lustre and per- 
fections without organic changes ; its functional life only 
requires to be vitalized and renewed. But it is the law of 
sectarianism to work out its own annihilation. It is created 
by a violation of unity, and finds no historical or logical 
law of restoration in these messages of Christ to the 
Churches. His words are based on the life that is in them, 
because they continue " steadfast in the Apostles' fellow- 
ship," even when the doctrine of the Apostles has been 
vitiated. On the other hand, if we seek the relics of Lu- 
ther's and Calvin's works, in Europe or elsewhere, we shall 
find them already far gone from their original patterns ; 
often fundamentally opposed to the Apostles' doctrine, and 
constantly degenerating into new departures from their 
fellowship, by compounded and reduplicated schisms. On 
this point we have testimony from a source that cannot be 
impeached. The late Chevalier Bunsen says : " Long has 
it been clear to me that in Protestant Germany no Church 
exists. Pious individuals there are, standing singly ; but the 
Church itself is fallen, and is destroyed." Siieh is the fate 
of sects. To none of them, as corporate societies, can apply 
the message, " Remember from whence thou art fallen, and 
do the first works," for tlieir very existence is an affront to 
that Spirit who has absolutely forbidden His children to be 
the disciples of men, or to bear their names. " For while 
one saith, / a^n of Paul^ and another, I am of A2:)oUos, 
are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? " How can any one 
who calls himself a Bible Christian consent, in view of this 
rebuke, to be named of Luther, of Calvin, or of any other 
founder of sect, no matter how eminent his genius or his 
services, in other respects, to societ}^, or even to the truth. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 189 



5. SCRIPTIJItAL POULTS. 

Let us now revert to the law and the testimony. The 
Apostles were to die like other men, and yet Christ had 
promised to be with them till the end of the world. Their 
" fellowship " was to continue, though their persons were 
to be withdrawn ; and this fellowship, as well as their 
doctrine, was endued with power to defy the gates of hell. 
Let us trace the history of this fellowship, accordingly, as 
it is given us in Holy Scripture. Judas fell from it, and 
Matthias was elected into his vacant " bishopric ; " and this 
election was confirmed by the power of the Spirit, on the 
Day of Pentecost. By an extraordinary call, Paul and 
Barnabas were also summoned to the Apostleship ; their 
miraculous powers attested their call. They were thus 
" born out of due time," yet they were not suffered to start 
a new line or separate organization ; for just when there 
seemed peril of this, St. Paul was led, " by revelation," to 
visit Jerusalem with Barnabas, lest all his work should be 
frustrated by the intrigues of " false brethren unawares 
brought in." It was then that the unity of the Apostolic 
college was rescued from apparent danger by the fusion 
of these extraordinary Apostles with the original college : 
" They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellow- 
ship." So not even an original and independent call from 
Christ was suffered to mar this fellowship, in which all 
Christians were steadfastly to continue. 

The latest testimony of Scripture to this principle is like 
the first. St. John says : " That which we have seen and 
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellow- 
ship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, 
and with His Son Jesus Christ." The Apostles were the 
hinges of unity ; to be in fellowship with them was a means 
of fellowship with the Father and with Christ. 



190 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

6. A FOEMULA. 

Now, whatever be the disputes about " bishops, priests, 
and deacons," they are nothing to these points. The fact 
remains, that except in the organic fellowship of the Apos- 
tles, there is nowhere, in the New Testament, any recog- 
nition of a ministry of the Gospel. The case of Apollos, 
which approaches it nearest, as we have seen, constitutes no 
exception. " Let a man so account of us as of the minis- 
ters of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." The 
writer is speaking of Paul and Apollos and Cephas, at the 
close of his tremendous rebuke of the incipient schism at 
Corinth. These three had been introduced into the minis- 
try of Christ in three very different ways ; they were three 
representative men, such as, in our days, would each lead 
off a sect. But the Apostle adds : " These things, breth- 
ren, I have reduced to a formula, or scheme of principle, in 
the case of Apollos and myself; for if he and I may not 
make ourselves heads of parties, you may understand that 
nobody has any right to do so ; and ye may learn by this 
adjudged case, once for all, the lesson of not going beyond 
ichat is written (in carrying out personal preferences), be- 
ing puffed up, each one for his favorite leader, one against 
another." I have paraphrased the passage, but not " above 
that which is written ; " for such is the plain sense of the ci- 
tation, even as it stands in our version, and more clearly in 
the Greek. 

We have a formula of unity, then, in what is said of 
Paul and Apollos and Cephas, and we have no right to " go 
beyond what is written " in this matter of the ministry and 
stewardship of the Gospel. But what is written ? 

7. RECORDS. 

We have the record of certain elections and ordinations 
to an inferior ministry in the sixth chapter of Acts. The 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 191 

twelve Apostles (Matthias is included) address the faithful 
in these words : " Look ye out among you seven men . . . 
whom tee may appoint over this business." Accordingly 
they chose seven, "whom they set before the Apostles; 
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." 
It would seem to follow, unless we are to " go beyond what 
is written," that even those who may be chosen to the 
humblest ministry of the Church are not to account them- 
selves appointed by popular election, but by the laying on 
of the hands of somebody differing from the other faithful, 
and to this function. For the pronouns you and we are 
very emphatic. They indicate plain distinctions ; and the 
limits of the functions of the people, and their chief pas- 
tors, seem very clearly defined. 

Further, we find the Apostolic college reinforced by not 
a few to whom the technical name " Apostles " is given. 
T say technical name, because it is not sufficiently remem- 
bered that Christ not only chose the twelve, but also named 
them "Apostles" (St. Luke, vi. 13). He gave them a 
Syriac name, that is, which is rendered " Apostles " or 
"angels" in the Greek, ^. 6., messengers or envoys. We 
have seen that St. Paul's call was miraculous and special ; 
and as much is intimated concerning Barnabas. Even 
these submitted to a certain investiture or mission ; but we 
are forbidden to regard them as ordained by men. They 
were not of the secondary class who received their com- 
mission " by men," i, 6., from the first Apostles. Hence, 
not the Apostles, but certain prophets, were called to 
separate them to their especial mission. The Holy Ghost, 
through a company of inspired men, set His seal to their 
extraordinary call, and they were afterward recognized by 
the " pillars " of the original college, as added to their own 
number by an original commission. But we soon find another 
class of Apostles, such as Timothy and Silvanus and Titus, 
to whom the functions of the Apostles were imparted " by 



192 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

men," though they were not " of men," but true Apostles 
of Christ. When all the original company, except St. 
John, had fallen asleep, we find the seven Churches pre- 
sided over each by a person bearing the same title ; for, as 
we have seen, Angel 2^:^^^ Apostle are but synonymes for the 
same Syriac word by which Christ named the twelve. It 
is characteristic of St. John thus to vary his Greek ; and 
he even rendered " the Lamb," in the Apocalypse by a dif- 
ferent Greek word from that which is used by St. Peter, 
and by himself elsewhere. So we see that the Apostles did 
not permit their functions to die with themselves, except 
those which were, in their own nature, extraordinary ; but 
pages of learned nonsense have been written on these mat- 
ters, for lack of a little insight into their simple under- 
lying system. 

8. SIGISrS AI^D CLAIMS. 

All that was extraordinary in their calling as original 
Apostles was, of course, personal to themselves. The 
" signs of an Apostle " were miraculous, in an age when 
private believers, and even women, were endowed with 
miraculous gifts. Miracles, to use a very insufficient term, 
were common in the original flock of Christ, for signs and 
wonders were logically necessary to establish the Gospel. 
Hence, they were limited by that necessity ; so that one 
might as well demand of Christian women, in our day, the 
gifts that were exhibited by Philip's daughters, as to ask 
the testimony of miraculous powers like St. Paul's in those 
who have received only the "ministry of the word, and 
mysteries," and who claim no more. Such signs ceased 
with those original witnesses to whom it was " given to 
suffer for Christ's sake," and to be " brought before kings 
and rulers," with no other defence or means of proving 
that they were sent from God. Therefore, all the greater 
need, ever since signs ceased, of the ordinary historical 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 193 

evidence that one has a mission from Christ and His 
Apostles. 

The Apostles were to be continued " to the end of the 
world," as to their essential "bishopric," — for this word 
is used in the election of Matthias. Where is that bishop- 
ric to be found ? Surely not where it is repudiated and 
abjured. We find our task simplified, then. We must 
search among those who " say that they are Apostles." 
These we must try accordingly, and if we "have found 
them liars," we may expose and renounce them, but not 
otherwise. Moreover, I submit that the Angel or Apostle 
of Ephesus would not have been called to try such claims, 
had it been understood, in a.d. 96, that there was only one 
Apostle living, and he a prisoner in Patmos. This is worth 
reflecting upon. 

The original Apostles were witnesses of the resurrection 
in a preeminent sense, as was logically necessary to the 
establishment of a Church which should be its perpetual 
witness. But Titus and Timothy were also witnesses of 
the resurrection, because they were ordained by those who 
had seen Christ after His resurrection, and who received 
their commission from a risen Redeemer. The historic 
Apostleship, then, as continued to the end of the world, 
is a witness of the resurrection. It exists as a monument 
of the fact that He " liveth who was dead." Destroy the 
historical succession, you destroy the strongest evidence of 
this truth. It is manifest to all the world that for eighteen 
centuries there has been a succession of men bearing and 
transmitting a commission which had no existence when 
Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. They say it 
originated with this same blessed Jesus, after He was risen 
from the dead. They are witnesses of the resurrection, 
therefore, by their very existence, unless you can show a 
more probable explanation of their origin, and prove it the 
true one. 

9 R 



194 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



9. WHAT IS weitte:n". 

We return to " that which is written." I do not m*ean 
to go beyond it. Enough is written to settle the matter in 
the three Pastoral Epistles, each addressed by an original 
Apostle to Apostles of the second class, called Angels 
by St. John. For though the name of an Apostle is not 
expressly given to Titus, as it is to Timothy, it will not be 
denied that the functions of each are the same, and that 
they have the same relations to St. Paul, who calls Titus 
his "partner and coworker." Indeed, St. Paul's phrase, 
the " chiefest Apostles," seems used with reference to the 
existence of these secondary Apostles, whom he names 
" Apostles of the ChurcheSj and the glory of Christ " (II. 
Cor. viii. 23) ; or, as in the case of Epaphroditus, " my 
brother and companion, but your Apostle,'^'* I do not urge 
the harmonious beauty of these renderings, because I am 
strong enough without that. ]N"either do I object to the 
common rendering of messengers^ but I think those who 
insist upon it forget the technical dignity of the name, as 
invented and conferred by Christ himself. 

ISTow, in these Pastoral Epistles, all three, we have the 
fact that they are each addressed to one of these secondary 
Apostles, and, as part of the sacred canon, are plainly 
designed to give a perpetual law to such officers in the 
Church. They recognize an order of Apostolic men, and 
concede to them certain functions of ordaining and admin- 
istration superior to those of other ministers. " For this 
cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order 
the things that are wanting, and ordain j^i'esbyters in every 
city." He then repeats substantially the same rules he had 
given to Timothy. But in the Epistles to Timothy we 
find fuller and more explicit testimony as to the order and 
regimen in which the Church was left by the original 
Apostles to their successors. Here we have, then, minute 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF bOD. 195 

directions as to the ordaining of an inferior order, called 
deacons. It is not to be doubted that these were of the 
same ministry which had been conferred on St. Stephen 
and others; nor that the presbyters, for whose ordination he 
also provides, were of the same ministry with those elders 
of Ephesus, and others, who are so often referred to in the 
Acts of the Apostles. It is amazing to observe how 
learned men theorize over the growth of a ministry, as by 
a mere accidental development of such offices ; as if it were 
possible that the Spirit of Wisdom could have left such a 
vital matter to the mere drift of circumstance ; or as if 
such a drift could have operated in creating the system 
which we find in the Pastoral Epistles. 



10. BISHOPS. 

But here somebody will be sure to remark tliat the 
presbyters thus referred to are called " bishops." Undoubt- 
edly they are ; but what of it ? This may introduce a 
question as to proper names and titles, but it does not alter 
things. Whatever these " bishops " were, they had over 
them one, in a higher " bishopric," who received from the 
Holy Ghost directions for their government as well as their 
ordination. Their episcopate, whatever it was, included no 
power to " ordain in every city," for Titus was left in Crete 
expressly for the exercise of that function, which would 
have been unnecessary if the presbyters of one city had 
the power of extending their order by their own acts, and 
so of supplying other cities with a proper ministry. As 
well argue that because a general is often called a " great 
captain^'' therefore all captains are generals. The words 
bishop and hlshopric are, in fact, as generic as the words 
pastor and pastorate^ or rector and rectorate, A presbyter 
had the episcopate or oversight of a flock, under Titus, who 
had the episcopate or oversight of every city in Crete, 



196 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

including its elders and deacons. One was a local overseer^ 
and the other a general overseer. The specific name of 
Titus and Timothy was that of their order ; they were 
apostles or angels. The specific name of those whom 
they ordained was that of their order ; they were presby- 
ters or elders. But bishop is the name of an office^ merely 
implying oversight or rectorship ; it is not the Scriptural 
name of the order^ as we have seen. A man may be the 
pastor^ overseer y or 7*uler of a congregation ; or he may be 
the pastor y over seer ^ or ruler of an island like Crete, — a 
missionary diocese. Obviously, the vacant " bishopric " to 
which Matthias was called as an apostle, was something 
different from, and superior to, the bishoprics of these 
Cretian presbyters. So, then, we have apostle-bishops and 
presbyter-bishops; we have Titus, an apostle-bishop, in 
Crete, and the presbyter-bishops ordained and presided 
over by him "in every city" of Crete. The difference of 
their stations and functions is as obvious as those of differ- 
ent "generals" in an army, as generals of divisions or 
brigades. The question whether we should restore the 
original names is another thing. Naturally enough the 
name " apostles " became restricted, after their death, to 
the origin :il Apostles ; and the pastoral name of "bishops " 
settled upon the chief pastors who succeeded them, quite 
as naturally, because they were pastors or bishojos of 
"eminent domain," as lawyers say. 

Perhaps it would be well to call presbyters " bishops ; " 
it would end a silly dispute, and the Scriptures furnish 
other names for those whom the Holy Ghost has called to 
preside over these " bishops." But I am not now consider- 
ing such matters. I am endeavoring to elevate the dis- 
cussion out of the realm of logomachy, or word-strifes, 
into the realm of logic, of realities and verities. Call 
these three orders what you may, the facts are demon- 
strated. Whosoever accepts the three Pastoral Epistles as 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. l^"? 

the inspired wisdom of God, must be wise " above what is 
written," or he must admit that three orders of ministers 
are clearly recognized therein. (1) An angel of the 
Churches is empowered to ordain, to preside, to administer, 
to receive and try accusations against presbyters, and, in 
short, to govern the clergy and laity of a whole city, or of 
a whole island, containing many cities; (2) certain local 
bishops or pastors are called presbyters or elders as to 
their order, whose ministry is, of necessity, limited by the 
superior functions confided to the first order ; and (3) cer- 
tain subordinate ministers are called deacons. Let words 
go, then ; these things are stubborn, and cannot be de- 
stroyed, except with the Bible itself. 

In point of fact, names are so mutable, these orders 
have received very different names in the Church at differ- 
ent times, and they exist, at this day, in the Oriental 
Churches, under very diverse appellations. And just as in 
the Apostolic Church of the first age we find all sorts of 
official titles, — evangelists, doctors, masters, rectors, and 
the like ; and now we find diverse officers called rectors, 
pastors, curates, missionaries, and the like; yet then, as 
now, all these offices and functions were distributed among 
persons, distinguished by laying on of hands, into three 
orders only ; (1) the Order of Timothy and Titus ; (2) the 
Order of the Cretian and Ephesine elders ; and (3) the 
Order of St. Stephen and St. Philip. Call these what you 
will. 

11. PEESBYTEES. 

But somebody has discovered that St. Peter calls him- 
self a presbyter ; " The presbyters that are among you I 
exhort, who am also a presbyter." Does that prove that 
he was not an Apostle ? Was he not, as such, superior to 
the presbyters he exhorted ? There is not one in the 
Apostolic order now called bishops who does not claim to 



198 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



be " also a presbyter." The greatest prelates in Christen- 
dom have always claimed this presbyterate. It is included 
in the Apostolate. The angel-bishop " entreats a presby- 
ter as a hrother^'' and often ministers with the elders, as an 
elder. Many diocesan bishop^ minister also as parochial 
presbyters. The Apostolate not only contains the pres- 
byterate, but also the diaconate ; a diocesan bishop is also 
a deacon. In this fact consists the beauty and grace of 
St. Peter's appeal. It is a wretched platitude, except as 
it implies that he is indeed something more. Nobody 
doubted his superiority as an Apostle; but he sweetly 
reminds the presbyters that he is also a presbyter^ and 
recognizes a common place with them as brethren, under 
the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls. 

I have avoided all the commonplaces of controversy, 
and have thus sketched from Scripture a simple and per- 
fectly consistent outline of " what is written for our learn- 
ing" on this subject. I defy anybody to construct any 
other theory of the Apostles' fellowship, which will meet 
all the facts of Scripture, and reduce all to a complete and 
harmonious whole. This plain outline satisfies every con- 
dition and circumstance, and exhibits a self-consistent 
scheme throughout. It answers all the difiiculties and 
objections which have thrown so many fine minds into 
confusion on this simple matter. It proves itself by squar- 
ing with every recorded intimation of Scripture on the 
subject. Whence came the infinite confusions of the 
learned in this matter ? I answer, from the learned ; it 
took wise men to invent such folly. The schoolmen are its 
authors. Every existing difficulty on this subject is the 
result of mediaeval Romanism. To exalt the papacy, the 
schoolmen revived the Aerian heresy, and cunningly 
introduced into theology those technical confusions about 
presbyters and bishops w^hich so much embarrassed the 
reformers. They created a new theory as to the sacred 



APOLLOS: OR THE AVAY OF GOD. 199 

ministry. In order to abase diocesan bishops from their 
primitive equality with the bishop of Rome, they made 
them mere presbyters. Their theory is, that the highest 
order in the ministry is that of presbyters. The Apos- 
tolate survives only in the Pope ; and " bishops " are simply 
presbyters appointed by him to exercise his functions in 
divers places. Calvin, educated in scholasticism, naturally 
accepted this theory; and, rejecting the papacy, by a 
logical consequence he organized his new system of pres- 
bytery. As he understood it then, he was consistent in 
regarding presbytery as sufficient, though he allowed that 
a primitive Episcopacy was not to be rejected where it 
might be had. Calvin's theory, which was the school 
theory, is now the dogmatic teaching of Rome. Rome 
makes the presbyterate the highest order ^ which is as con- 
trary to Scripture as it is to the whole testimony of the 
Apostolic Churches. Extremes meet. Strange as it may 
appear, Presbyterianism is pure Romanism ; and " Episco- 
pacy," or the primitive doctrine of Cyprian, that the 
Apostles have successors in diocesan bishops, "whose 
Episcopate is one and undivided, each bishop being an 
equal partner," — this is what Rome calls heresy, dreading 
its revival in her own communion more than she dreads all 
the Protestantism in the world. 



12. TRANSMISSION, 

" The faith once delivered to the saints " was committed 
to them in " the Apostles' fellowship," visibly organized, as 
we have seen. " O Timothy, keep that which is committed 
to thy trust." . . . "And the things which thou hast 
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou 
to faithful men^ who shall be able to teach others also." 
. . . " Lay hands suddenly on no man." Here we have 
(1) the Apostles' doctrine, the deposit of the faith, com- 



200 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

mitted to an apostle-bishop presiding over many presby- 
ters ; (2) the rule for its- transmission, through his hands, to 
successors ; and (3) a recognition of his responsibility for 
laying hands only on faithful men, implying clearly that 
the power of ordination was his, and that admission to the 
ministry was to be sought by such ordination. So, then, 
" continuing steadfastly in the Apostles' fellowship " is not 
a matter of taste, but of duty. Christ organizes one sys- 
tem for the transmission of His truth, — a system of organic 
unity " that the world may believe." This organic unity 
is likened to that of the human body, or a well-constructed 
house. To have fellowship with the Apostles is to " have 
fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." 
This is St. John's assertion,' and it is thus expounded by 
St. Paul : " Holding the head, from which all the body, hy 
joints and bands ^ having nourishment ministered and Jcnit 
together^ increaseth with the increase of God." Or again, 
"Ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house- 
hold of God, and are built upon the foundation of the 
Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner-stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed to- 
gether^ groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." Can any 
man conceive that such ideas are consistent with the ropes 
of sand, or with the disjointed rafts and inorganic creations 
of modern sectarianism? 



13. THE VIOLATIO:^- OF LAW. 

Let us reflect that this inorganic principle, once admit- 
ted, becomes chargeable with all the confusions and divis- 
ions that necessarily follow. He who is " not the author of 
confusion " provided against such disorders in the consum- 
mate wisdom of the organic .fellowship of the Apostles. 
And truly an unspeakable degradation of the very idea of 
the ministry of the Gospel seems to be the punishment with 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 201 

which He who instituted the Apostolic fellowship is now 
visiting those who despise that institution, in this land. 
Judicial blindness makes them their own destroyers. They 
are forced, by the decrees of Providence, to reduce their 
own principles to the absurd. What makes a minister of 
Christ? Nobody can answer this question, consistently, 
but he who is able to answer, "A commission from Christ 
himself, through the Apostles' fellowship." An inward 
call must be the profession and assurance of the person's 
own conscience who seeks it. They who confer the com- 
mission must satisfy themselves that such a profession is 
sincerely and soberly made. But the only warrant the 
world can have for receiving any one as Christ's ambassa- 
dor, must be Christ's own outward commission, openly con- 
ferred in the visible and historical fellowship of the Apos- 
tles, known and read of all men. ApoUos himself, till he 
receives such a commission, is " an eloquent man and 
mighty in the Scriptures," but he is not an ambassador of 
Christ, nor a " steward of His mysteries." 

The unspeakable degradation which sooner or later over- 
takes any ministry which is not according to this rule, seems 
to be the award of Divine Wisdom for maintaining His 
violated law. Whether in nature or in the moral world, 
God's laws avenge themselves. They who violate them, 
sooner or later "receive in themselves the recompense 
which is meet." 

The excellent and noble ApoUos, of our epoch, finds 
himself, on his own principles, associated every day with 
deniers of Christ, and even with Mormon elders, as of the 
same calling and profession. So the popular mind under- 
stands it, nor can he assert a distinction which is based on 
any real difference as to principle. Is it learning ? But 
we have learned Socinians, and accomplished preachers of 
mere deism in the name of Christianity. Is it Evangelical 
orthodoxy ? After what standard, or in what quantwn ? 
9* 



202 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



Dr. Channing goes down from Calvinism to Socinianism, 
imperceptibly, without loss of character in his own congre- 
gation. At what precise point in his descent is he a quali- 
fied minister of Christ's Gospel, and by what criterion does 
he become, at any time, an emissary of the evil one ? for 
as such his Congregational brethren finally regarded him. 
At what moment are his ordinations, baptisms, and other 
ministrations, valid and Evangelical ? When do they be- 
come void as means of grace ? What amount of personal 
orthodoxy in a loving and estimable Socinian preacher, 
who fluctuates between truth and error, is requisite for his 
recognition as one sent of Christ to preach His Gospel ? Fix 
the precise quantity, and then meet the question as to his 
neighbors, in a nominally " orthodox " pulpit, who, in point 
of fact, fall below that standard. I have known the " or- 
thodox " man nominally a Socinian, and the real Socinian 
nominally " orthodox." How are the people, the poor, scat- 
tered sheep, to decide such questions ? What possible safe- 
guards can be proposed to them in such cases, by which they 
are to distinguish the man concerning whom it is said, 
" Whoso receiveth you receiveth Me," from the man con- 
cerning whom it is said, "Receive him not into your 
houses ; , . . he that receiveth him is partaker of his evil 
deeds." 

14. ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Let me illustrate the unspeakable degradation of which 
I have spoken. An eminent Unitarian presided lately at 
the ordination of a woman, " He had doubted," he said, 
" as to the propriety of such a course, till he remembered 
that in Christ there is neither male nor female." On a like 
confusion of ideas he might have proceeded to join two 
spinsters in Christian vv^edlock, pronouncing them "man 
and wife." The possibility of equality in Christ, as consist- 
ing with diversities of gifts, calls, and functions, happened 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 203 

not to strike this learned gentleman ; and hence, there 
being no law nor principle in his denomination to res- 
train him, he proceeds to " ordain " a Miss to preach the 
Gospel. 

The eminent divine whom I have already quoted as in 
favor of " five or six different denominations at least," is not 
only a lawgiver to thousands in this country, but he is re- 
garded as, eminently, an "Evangelical" authority. W.hat 
law would he prescribe as the Evangelical criterion of the 
sacred ministry of Christ among these " five or six denom- 
inations ? " We have it at last, under his own hand, at least 
in the extraordinary negative form which such a law must 
take. What is it ? Is it orthodoxy ? IS'o ; he congratulates 
a Socinian on a call to preach " the Gospel." Is it learning? 
Certainly not. He cannot consistently deny JDOor Sancho's 
call, in the extraordinary case already cited from the testi- 
mony of a -Methodist bishop. What then? Is it sex? 
Nay, for the minister whom he congratulates is a icoinaii ! 
What it may be nobody .can possibly determine ; but here 
is " the right hand of fellowship," as extended by " the 
Plymouth Pulpit " to a Mrs, Celia- Blank: 

"I do cordially believe that you ought to preach. I 
think you had a ' call ' in your very nature, Nor do I 
doubt that you will be both instructive and edifying. 
There are elements of the Gospel which a woman's nature 
ought to bring out far more successfully than a man can. 
We have no adequate expression yet for sympathy, for 
mercy, for pity, for love, in the sermons of men. It is 
these very elements that our cwilization and our popular 
CJiristianity need. The illustration and application of 
these divine qualities to all these phases of character, to the 
household culture, to public sentiment, to secular affairs, to 
civil procedure, constitute a life's work, and if done with 
thoroughness and power would produce the effect almost 
of a new Gospel, I do not disdain the claims of abstract 
truth, nor of justice, nor even of severity. But these have 
been disproportionately prominent in the theology of the 



204 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

schools and the preaching of the pulpits. However, I did 
not mean to write a sermon or a criticism. 

" Hoping for you a long and a successful ministry^ I am, 
very truly, yours." 

The words I have italicised are worthy of observation. 
Here, then, we have it. " Our civilization " and " popular 
Christianity" demand something of which Christ never 
thought when He chose twelve Apostles and left out the 
Marys, though he included Judas, showing that His com- 
mission makes an Apostle even out of a bad man, while the 
want of it makes no minister even of a saint. Again, nat- 
ure, and not grace, qualifies and gives a " call: " more espe- 
cially woman's nature, which the Gospel expressly excludes 
from the ministry. I beseech my beloved brother "Apol- 
los" to look at this. Well does the writer suggest that we 
have the elements of a " new Gospel." Such a Gospel St. 
Paul anathematizes, but it is the Gospel of our " popular 
Christianity." 

15. THE SUCCESSION. 

The Apostles' fellowship, I observe, in conclusion, is the 
essential principle of what is called the Apostolic succession. 

It is therefore a Scriptural principle. Apart from this 
living principle of unity and historic fellowship, it is dry 
bones indeed. I grant this to those who have never viewed 
it in its vital forces, and with reference to the peace and 
unity of Christendom. A question remains as to matter of 
fact. Can we prove that the Apostles' commission has been 
transmitted historically and validly ? Nothing in history 
is more evident ; but this lies beyond the Scriptural facts I 
have undertaken to discuss. If the Scriptures can be 
trusted, our Lord promised to " be with His Apostles to the 
end of the world." His Apostles have clearly indicated the 
rules for transmitting, not their extraordinary vocation, but 
their ministry of the Word and Sacraments ; and the Holy 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 



205 



Ghost has recorded their acts for our example and learning. 
Somewhere, then, we have reason to believe, the identity of 
"the Apostles' fellowship " exists ; perhaps in some modern 
Smyrna, perhaps in Philadelphia, perhaps even in Sardis ; 
for what little life remains in Sardis is attributable to this 
fellowship chiefly. This only I will add, that if you will 
construct a historical argument for the canon of Holy Scrip- 
ture, I will prove by similar evidence, amounting to moral 
certainty, that in the communion of the Anglican Churches 
the Apostolic fellowship is preserved. The Church of Eng- 
land was once as Sardis was; but Christ was faithful to His 
promise, and still held her Apostolic ministry in His right 
hand. He came to her in His Providence, and said : " Be 
watchful, and strengthen the things which remain that are 
ready to die : for I have not found thy works perfect before 
God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and 
heard, and hold fast and repent.'' The angels of the An- 
glican Churches heard what the Spirit said, and they re- 
pented and restored the faith once delivered ; they held it 
fast, and strengthened the things that remained. We con- 
tinue, therefore, to this day, "steadfast in the Apostles' 
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in 
prayers." 



S 



X.-THE APOSTLES' EUCHARIST. 

1, A CONTRAST. 

How often the force of an incident compels to logical 
conclusions, which tedious dialectics fail to reach. Such 
an incident we find in the history of St. Paul at Troas : 
" Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came 
together to hreah bread^ Paul preached." He had spent 
the week there ; his coming had been anticipated, for he 
had sent Timothy and others before his own coming to 
announce him and to make ready for him. In such circum- 
stances, how would a modern account of the solemnities 
be worded ? Among the Romanists : " On Sunday last, in 
the Corso, his Grace, Archbishop M., who has just arrived 
from England, preached to a crowded congregation, and 
celebrated High Mass, — Mozart." Among our Evangelical 
brethren : " On Sabbath last a large and attentive audience 
assembled in the Tabernacle, to hear the celebrated Dr. 
G., of Edinburgh." Among ourselves, it would, not unfre- 
quently, be little better; yet it would not be strange 
in the least, thank God, to see it worded thus: "On 
Thursday last, at Trinity Church, previous to the embarka- 
tion of the Bishop of L., on his return to England, the 
Holy Communion was celebrated, and partaken by a large 
number of the clergy and laity : the bishop preached." 

2. NO EXCUSE FOR FS. 

I have felt it my duty to acknowledge what we cannot 
deny, that in our own Church this popular fault is by no 



APOLLOS. OR THE WAY OF GOD. 207 

means uncommon. We give way to the current of popular 
ideas in this respect, and we, too, stimulate the " itching 
ear." But it is not so in the theory of our worship, how- 
ever corrupt our practice. For every Lord's Day in the 
year, and for many days besides, our Church provides a 
special Eiicharistic office ; and for every day that shines 
there is an office for the breaking of bread, as well as for 
the daily sacrifice of praise and prayer. In many of our 
churches the weekly Eucharist is an established usage. 
Monthly, and on the greater festivals, it is celebrated in all 
the older and more prosperous parishes. In principle, the 
Scriptural example is recognized. All agree that public 
worship gravitates to the Eucharist as its grand centre or 
foundation-stone. Morning Prayer is completed at the 
altar, with a portion of the Communion Office, even when the 
breaking of bread does not actually follow. And to a com- 
plete restoration of the primitive practice of a weekly 
Eucharist we are moving as fast, perhaps, as comports 
with healthful progress. A morbid zeal has even set up 
a daily Eucharist in some places, but not, I grieve to say, 
with an exemplary spirit, nor in a way to recommend the 
experiment to sober Christians. The more wholesome life 
of the Church is quietly warming to the unequivocal ex- 
ample and standard of the Apostles, who often celebrated 
the Eucharist exceptionally on the week-days, but Avhose 
rule was, evidently, to associate the Lord's Supper with the 
Lord's Day. To this restoration almost every parochial 
pastor who loves his work guides his flock, as progressively 
as he can ; but he rather seeks first to excite a genuine " hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness.'* 

To restore the primitive Eucharist, where there is 
neither primitive discipline nor any truly primitive spirit 
to sustain it, has generally proved an abortive and mortify- 
ing experiment. " Wisdom is justified of her children." 
To hasten slowly is wisdom in almost all attempts at resto- 



208 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

ration. But when we are called to hold up a primitive 
example to others, let us cheerfully begin by condemning 
ourselves Our actual practice does not illustrate our pro- 
fessed Drinciples. Few are the churches, even in our own* 
sacramental and liturgical communion, in which the first 
thought of the Lord's Day is the Lord's Supper ; in which 
the house of God is sought with this as the primary idea ; 
in which the instinct of the worshipper is not to hear an 
oration, but to meet Him who vouchsafes His special pres- 
ence with two or three, and who commands His followers 
to do this in commemoration of Him ; to do it often ; and 
thus to "show forth the Lord's death until He come." 



3. PREACHIlSrG. 

Popular religion has utterly lost this idea of the wor- 
ship of Christians, if not the legitimate conception of pub- 
lic worship, absolutely and entirely. Who thinks of a 
popular tabernacle as a "house of prayer?" In Lent, at 
least, our churches are full for the offices of daily prayer; 
but even among us, how many go to hear the preacher, 
and refuse to go when there is no sermon ? God forbid 
that I should undervalue preaching, — that is, true preach- 
ing ; the sermon which is a sermo^ or word from the Word' 
of God. God send us more and more of the power and 
logic of Apollos, — eloquent men and mighty in the Scrip- 
tures. But is not the complaint most just that these are 
the times of " the itching ear," when there is little hunger- 
ing for the Word, and when there is no synaxis, or gather- 
ing together, except to hear an eloquent preacher ? 



4. THE SYN^AXIS. 

This old theological word is suggestive. It is a familiar 
term with St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine for the Holy 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 209 

Communion, and conveys m itself much instruction. The 
primitive Christians drew their principles of Divine Service 
from the synagogue, as supplementing the Eucharist wor- 
ship, into which the temple worship had passed. " In every 
place " — and not only in Jerusalem ; by Gentile ministers, 
and not only by Levites — " the pure oblation " was offered, 
according to the prophet ; and when they came together it 
was for this thing, — " to eat the Lord's Supper," after the 
prayers. The Hebrew synagogue, therefore, was glorified 
into the Christian synaxis. But mark this important fact : 
the synaxis or gathering together of Christians having 
this breaking of bread for its primary object, the word 
soon comes to mean the assembling of the faithful at the 
Holy Table; and, finally, as every student of the Fathers 
must know, it often means the Holy Communion itself. 
Then a higher meaning descends upon it and sanctifies it, 
for it is explained as having a nobler significance, as being 
that by which we are united to one head, and so congre- 
gated as one body in Christ ; as many grains of wheat are 
made one head, and as many berries crushed become one 
wine. 

5. CORRUPTIONS. 

In the middle ages this idea is wholly lost ; the Synaxis 
gives place to the Mass, to which harmless word for the 
dismission of non-communicants an artificial meaning is 
attached, and soon banishes from the popular mind all 
ideas of communion. " The Mass " now means the precise 
opposite of what it meant among the primitive faithful. 
With them it se^it moay (dismissed) those who did not com- 
municate ; with the Romanist, it demands their presence. 
"To hear Mass" was the middle-ago idea, as now to hear 
a sermon. The Romish laity are now driven by penalties, 
as by a cart whip, to one single mutilated communion in 
the year. Solitary masses are multiplied and applied to 



210 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

the dead rather than to the living ; and so while the Apos- 
tolic doctrine perishes in fables and profane dogmatics 
about the Eucharist, all its real life and significance are 
lost sight of. When a reformation is attempted, the Syn- 
axis reappears in England, and is recognized theoretically 
by Luther. But the middle-age evil of a despised and 
neglected communion cannot be immediately corrected. 
The reformed, especially in Switzerland, begin to hear 
sermons as they had long heard mass ; and the populace 
transfers this idea to the Sunday congregation, as its sole 
purpose in " coming together." 

In Rousseau's infancy he played a trick on the old lady, 
Madame Clot, tandis qu'elle etoit au preche. Thus the 
preche had become one the idea of public worship in Geneva, 
and Rousseau's life and career were one consequence of this 
corruption. Another was the abolition by the General 
Presbytery, on the third anniversary of the reformation, of 
all creeds and confessions of Christ's divinity. They had, 
in fact, lost them long before. But observe, — the child 
Rousseau was neglected and left at home because he 
" could not understand preaching^ of course." Hence, the 
house of God becomes no place for children. In its offices 
they can take no part. In England, Rousseau might have 
been brought up very differently ; in Geneva, nothing else 
was possible. The consequences were soon apparent, not 
only in the unhappy man, but in the preaching of Geneva. 
The same results have followed in New England ; and in 
our Western States there are more practical Rousseaus 
than there are men and women of any other class what- 
ever. Though they have not thought about it enough to 
know the fact, the spirit of Rousseau penetrates" and per- 
meates the American people to a degree that may well 
appal the Christian. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 211 



6. a:n"other incident. 

Another Scriptural incident, instead of a train of argu- 
ment. St. Paul has occasion to refer to the Corinthians, 
with the usual formula, which implies their coming together 
"in one place and with one accord" for Divine Service. 
What is the idea of this service ; or, in other words, its 
professed object ? Answer. " To eat the Lord's Supper." 
It is " the sublime Synaxis " in which, according to the 
Apostle's own exposition, we are made " members of His 
body, of His flesh, and of His bones?" or again, "one 
bread and one body though we be many, for we are all 
partakers of that one bread f'^'^ 

Here a cloud of popular errors becomes dispersed by the 
sunlight of truth. The faithful come together neither to 
" hear a sermon," nor to " assist at Mass," but " to eat the 
Lord's Supper." This supper is not a sentimental love-- 
feast, but a sacramental or mystical communion with 
Christ, and a means of perpetuated unity among His mem- 
bers. Then, again, its spirit does not exhaust itself in the 
sweet social relations of believers, genuine as these are ; it 
recognizes a " great mystery " of Oneness, of which this 
common participation is the ordinary means and the log- 
ical base. It is not, as would be said in these days, " we 
^Slfeel alike," much less " we all agree to differ." It is not 
" we are one body because we all unite in tract-societies, 
and sewing-circles, and in hand-shakings on platforms." 
It is our one accord in one doctrine and fellowship and " in 
the breaking of bread." "We are members of one another, 
because we are partakers of that one Bread. 

The Bread is " the communication of the body of 
Christ," and " the Cup is the communication of the blood 
of Christ." In short, as we are all " by one Spirit bap- 
tized into one body," and as we have all been made to 
" drink into one Spirit," so " we are the body of Christ, 



212 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

and members in particular ; " and ^' the great mystery " of 
marriage is transferred to the Church of Christ, as " bone 
of His bone, and flesh of His flesh." 

7. LOVE-FEASTb. 

No need to point out how utterly these ideas of the 
Apostle are made obsolete by popular religion. As its 
idea of communion, it adopts the favorite little song, — 

" We share eacli otlier^s woes, 
Eaeli other's burdens bear. 
And often for each other flows 
The sympathizing tear." 

That grand paraphrase (of Heb. xii. 18) by Dr. Watts 
is not regarded as half so appropriate to the Lord's Supper : 
yet this stanza, — 

" Angels and living saints and dead 
But one communion make, 
All join in Christ their living Head, 
And of His life partake"- 

this stanza, slightly varied, as I transcribe it, contains the 
very kernel of St. Paul's doctrine, and of that Synaxis of 
the primitive faithful to which we have referred. " If we 
walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another^ and the blood of His Son Jesus Christ 
cleanseth from all sin." 

What was once a sacrament has become, among many 
Christians, a mere " love-feast " — edifying and solemn, but 
a mere agape — hardly rising to the dignity of those 
ancient agapce of which we have some notice in the Apos- 
tolic writings. The abuses into which the Corinthian 
Church fell, through low ideas of the Lord's Supper, seem 
to have some connection with these agapce. It was the 
agapce^ and not the Eucharist, which they so grossly 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 213 

abused, — taking first, or beforehand^ their personal meal 
with gluttony and surfeiting, and then, in their sensualized 
condition, partaking of the Lord's Supper. Such were 
" those spots in their feasts of charity — feeding themselves 
without fear '^'' — of whom St. Jude speaks. And it is this 
"feeding i^zYAow^ /6ar" which leads to other abuses less 
gross, but quite as perilous, in our own day. The Synaxis 
is described by St. Chrysostom as of terrible solemnity. 

8. SCEIPTURAL IDEAS. 

It would be quite foreign to my present purpose to go 
into a dogmatic exposition of the Lord's Supper. I am 
only showing the place which this institution of the Master 
holds in the system to which Apollos was introduced. 
Whatever be its doctrinal import, it is clear that its practi- 
cal and constant observance, as the grand solemnity of the 
Lord's Day, was perfectly understood by the Apostles and 
their converts to be the design of, Christ in His precept, 
"Do this in remembrance of Me." That is the point. 
Nothing less than this fully realizes the Scriptural ideas 
of hallowing the Lord's Day ; of hallowing the name of 
the Lord ; of showing forth the Lord's death ; of partaking 
of Christ ; of the communion of saints ; of keeping the Chris- 
tian Passover; of feeding upon the Paschal Lamb ; of eat- 
ing that which is meat indeed, and drinking that which is 
drink indeed ; of faith which discerns the Lord's body ; 
of eating spiritual meat and drinking spiritual drink; qi 
eating Christ and living by Him, so as to attain unto the 
resurrection of the dead. 

9. INEEREXCES. 

Granted that, where no such means of grace can be had, 
all tliis may be realized by faith only, unto the soul's salva- 
tion ; granted that all of which Christ speaks at Capernaum 



214 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

about His flesh and blood may be received, to the soul's 
health, day by day, and without actual partaking in the 
breaking of bread ; granted that all this may be ; yet 
nobody can deny that, in instituting His great Supper, our 
Lord has the same end in view, and furnishes our weakness 
Avith a blessed instrument whereby "virtue goes out of 
Him," as to the woman who touched the hem of His gar- 
ment, and heals our souls' diseases. And yet, if anybody 
should deny what alone can account for the prominence 
given to the Lord's Supper in the Scriptures ; if anybody 
will persist in giving neither spiritual dignity nor sacra- 
mental efficacy to this ordinance; still the fact remains 
that this ordinance is insisted upon by the Apostles as not 
carnal, but spiritual, and that, as such, it presents the great 
idea of their public worship. My argument is, that its 
disuse, its degradation, its subversion, as we see it among 
thousands who profess to be " evangelical," is not evangel- 
ical, but the very reverse. The Evangelical Christians, to 
whom Apollos joined himself, " continued steadfastly in the 
Apostles' breaking of bread." 



10. FUKTHER. 

Here comes in another point : it was " the Apostles' 
breaking," and not that of the faithful who received it^ 
which was the criterion of this Eucharist. I grant, in all 
candor, that one might infer exceptional cases from several 
passages in Scripture. Thus Samuel was empowered to 
oifer Sacrifice, under the Law, though he was not a priest. 
Neither will I venture to say that, while there were inspired 
prophets accredited by the Apostles among the early Chris- 
tians, these were not often commanded by the Holy Ghost 
to administer the Holy Communion, even as we have seen 
that " prophets," who were not Apostles, were called to lay 
hands on Saul and Barnabas, in an exceptional case. The 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 215 

same instance would have conclusive force in this case, it 
it were entirely certain that there were no ordained elders 
or presbyters among those prophets at Antioch ; for it was 
"while t/iei/ mi?iistered unto the Lord and fasted" that 
the Spirit spoke to them. That the original term here 
employed includes "the breaking of bread," I suppose 
nobody will be likely to deny. It is a very noteworthy 
example, however, in another respect. These prophets 
" ministered unto the Lord " as well as unto the people. 
To meet, even with the two or three, to celebrate Chris- 
tian offices, to offer prayers with fastings, — this is set before 
us as an example of what the Holy Ghost approves and 
accepts. How utterly this idea perishes in popular Chris- 
tianity ! Unless there is an " audience," there is supposed 
to be no excuse for opening the house of God, and worship- 
ping. " Tou won't find it worth while to open the church," 
says the worldly-wise man ; " there will not be a dozen to 
hear you." This is wisdom among practical Christians in 
our day. That the special promise of Christ to be specially 
present, even with " two or three," means anything, — this 
is incredible. That it is worth while to invite that special 
presence of the Good Shepherd, and to honor it in His own 
house, — this is not conceived of. That a " minister " should 
be thankful for an opportunity to mialster unto his Master, 
as well as to his brethren, — this is foolishness to the worldly- 
w4se. Places of preaching^ which stand close-locked all 
the week, and in the summer months, even on Sundays, 
attest the profound and stolid slumber into which we Lao- 
diceans of modern times have fallen, while we rejoice in 
our spirituality, and feel that we " have need of nothing." 



11. EETROSPECT. 

But to look back ; we were remarking that the law of 
this breaking of bread was that the Apostles, and those 



216 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

whom they had admitted to this ministry with them, 
should be its liturgists and administrators. " The cup of 
the blessing (the Eucharistic benediction) which we bless, 
. . . the bread which we break," is sufficiently emphatic. 
He does not say, " which ye break, which ye bless," but 
plainly claims this as the work of those who are " stewards 
of the Mysteries," as well as ministers of the Word. All 
Christians are priests ; but every one has his special voca- 
tion and ministry as such. The Christian woman does not, 
in all things, exercise the priesthood of the Christian man, 
her husband; the Christian layman does not exercise the 
priesthood of a deacon ; nor does the deacon exercise that 
of the presbyter ; nor does the presbyter bishop assume that 
of the angel bishojy. " Every man in his own order," in 
this as in other things, for " God is not the author of con- 
fusion." There were already common rules and ordinances 
of Divine Service. It was the sufficient argument against 
innovations to say, " We have no such custom, neither the 
churches of God." When the Apostle subjoins, " Let all 
things be done decorously and according to method" — 
that is, prescript order or system — he shows that the Cor- 
inthians, even at this stage of their history, had no excuse 
for much of their disorderly conduct. The Apostle gives 
them the general praise of " keeping the ordinances as he 
delivered them,'^^ Much is implied in all these references 
to order. They teach much as to the care which was be- 
stowed by the Apostles upon the right ordering of the 
sacraments, as well as upon the doctrinal education of their 
followers. It is amazing how entirely these intimations 
are overlooked even by otherwise learned interpreters, who 
seem to take up the New Te^ament with the preconceived 
determination that there shall not be discovered -therein 
any underlying system. This they do, even when they 
allow the historical fact that there was organic system in 
the primitive Church at a date so early that its existence 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 217 

everywhere, and among all Churches, can only be accounted 
for by a common origin, — by those Apostolic ordinances of 
unity which are so constantly referred to, and which I am 
now so painfully demonstrating. This age is set to accept 
any theory rather than that which agrees with history ; 
which harmonizes all the Scriptures; which meets and 
solves all difficulties; and Avhich involves no other diffi- 
culty than that of taking the Scriptures as they were taken 
by the primitive faithful. The divisions of our days have 
disposed men to force new meanings upon Scripture ; that 
is to say, every man according to the psalm or doctrine 
of his own modern theorist ; every man according to his 
own taste. 

12. preco:n'ceptions and afteethoughts. 

But this was done in the middle ages in another direc- 
tion. And it is an instructive lesson and warning to us, 
when we observe how inveterate prejudices may tyrannize 
even over learned men, such as Bossuet, when they have 
once learned to give a meaning to Scripture which happens 
to suit their circumstances. 

Dollinger and his allies have lately demonstrated that 
the Romish doctrine about St. Peter was unknown to the 
primitive faithful ; yet the false interpretation of " Thou 
art Peter " has enslaved nations for a thousand years. I 
merely state the fact that the divisions of modern Chris- 
tendom have led to perversions of Scripture, almost as 
monstrous, which exercise a similar power over large sects 
and popular divines. " There are differences of adminis- 
tration, but the same Lord : " the way in which this text 
is wrested from its place in St. Paul's argument, and made 
to favor sectarianism, i?i direct oj^j^osition to his argument, 
may illustrate what I say. Sects are created, and then 
Scripture must be forced to sustain thera. But the exposi- 
10 T 



218 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

tions I am enforcing are no such afterthoughts. They co- 
incide with all that is known of the Christians who had seen 
and heard the Apostles of our Lord. 



13. ST. Paul's gospel. 

The great Apostle of the Gentiles was an original 
Evangelist. This, too, is a forgotten fact. And what a 
volume of meaning there is in his solemn assertion that 
whereas he had not been with the other Apostles at the 
Last Supper, the Lord Jesus gave him a personal revelation 
of all that occurred at that grand moment, which revela- 
tion also he had delivered as such to these same Corinthi- 
ans. Our glorious Melchizedek gave us this ordinance, 
therefore, not merely in its first institution, but afterward 
in committing it anew to St. Paul, and, through him, w^ith 
divers accessory precepts, to the Church. This fact is 
utterly overlooked by popular religion. Hence, in popular 
estimation, the Eucharist has dwindled down to a pious 
collation, which nobody need observe unless he finds it 
agreeable to his taste or convenience. But now to the 
law and to' the testimony : How do we find it in St. Paul's 
Gospel? what did Christ teach His Church in the year 57, 
by express and reiterated revelation, and in order to regu- 
late this ordinance forever? 



14. TIMES AXD PLACES. 

In the year of Christ 45, as the learned Bishop of Lin- 
coln computes, and probably at Antioch, after his ceremo- 
nial separation to the Apostolate, came those " visions and 
revelations of the Lord," of which the Apostle so modestly 
informs the Corinthians only in his second epistle, and 
after a long residence among them. But the three years 
in Arabia preceding a.d. 37 were full of visions, and seem 



APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 219 

to have been his initiation into the Gospel, as an equivalent 
^to the three years which the original twelve had spent with 
the Lord. Now the raptures of a.d. 45 seem to have been 
the super-excellent privilege of St. Paul only. In them he 
was taught concerning the things unseen, concerning the 
descent into hell, and the ascension into the third heaven. 
Let us conclude, therefore, that it was more probably in 
Arabia that the Master gave him these visions and revela- 
tions of His own life and sufferings, and of the Last Sup- 
per. Hence we have a Gospel according to St. Paul, 
which appears in many places distributed through his 
epistles. He took his facts not from tradition, nor from 
those who were Apostles before him. He was an original 
Evangelist, and from this view of the matter we cannot 
but gather a great principle with reference to the facts he 
has committed to writing. They are a supplement to the 
other Gospels, and they are given, with emphasis, as the 
Master's own ultimate exposition. " How can you make so 
much of a mere ordinance ? " So said once, in my hear- 
ing, a well-trained divine, who added, " Christ says nothing 
more about it save only, ' Do this in re7nembrance of Me,'^ " 
He had forgotten all that Christ told the Apostle about it, 
lono; after the Ascension, and of course he could not see 
its connection with the miracle and the teaching recorded 
in the sixth chapter of St. John. He argued that, now 
and then, to eat bread and to drink wine, with pious reflec- 
tions upon the Crucifixion, is all we can make of Christ's 
words. 

15. A DIGRESSIO:^^. 

There are many Christians in America who are of this 
opinion. Practically, they make even less of it ; for, 
while I write, an interesting Quakeress is passing through 
the country and " preaching " in the pulpits of the most 
respectable Presbyterians, whose pastors commend her to 



220 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

their flocks as a proper Christian teacher. Of course, as a 
Quakeress, she believes in no sacraments and no ministry,/ 
has never been baptized, and has never in her life taken 
any part, even by way of collation, in obedience to the 
precept, " Do this in remembrance of Me." But to her 
learned and most respectable patrons I address my remon- 
strance. What do they make of the facts I am now recall- 
ing? Our Lord Himself re-presented and renewed the 
Eucharistic Feast Ion or after His ascension into heaven, and 
gave it anew to His Church with the explicit narrative and 
expositions recorded by St. Paul. In the year 57, at 
Easter, as Dean Howson reminds us, while they were 
" unleavened," that is, keeping the Christian Passover, he 
writes to the Corinthians from Ephesus his first epistle, 
and gives them this Gospel. They had become disorderly 
in some respects. Page after page of this epistle bears 
witness to the fact that St. Paul must have previously 
given them many detailed directions. He praises them for 
general conformity, and yet fills up his letter with com- 
plaints concerning non-conformities, for which he cannot 
praise them. Finally, after telling them to obey his 
rubrics, or taxis^ as thus delivered afresh, he promises yet 
further to "set things in order" by another visit. Note, 
then, in the year 33 our Lord institutes the Eucharist ; in 
the year 37 He gives it anew, by revelation, to St. Paul, in 
Arabia; and twenty years later, by the Holy Ghost, He 
makes St. Paul record all this, with expositions and with a 
system or taxis {rubrics^ so to speak) for all Churches and 
for all time. 

16. A STUDY. 

Let me conclude with a study of the Apostles' Eucha- 
rist, purely Scriptural, as we have it here, fully and practi- 
cally expounded. (1) On the Lord's Day, and (2) not 
commonly in their own houses, but in some place or upper- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 221 

room, called inferentially the Lord's house, (3) they must 
come together (4) to eat the Lord's Supper. (5) This they 
should do as something different from a common repast, 
and discerning the Lord's body. (6) For when the Apos- 
tles or their delegates (7) bless the cup and (8) break the 
bread, with (9) Eucharist or giving of thanks, (10) the 
faithful saying Amen^ (11) it is the communication of the 
blood of Christ and (12) the communication of the body 
of Christ. (13) But he who does not worthily receive it 

(14) does not effectually eat the Lord's Supper, but rather 

(15) eateth and drinketh judgment to himself. (16) For 
God is pleased to chastise such with pliysical sufferings, 
and (17) even with death, if they persist ; yes, (18) even 
believers whose death is the only judgment for their fault, 
and who sleep in Jesus, because they ignorantly profaned 
this sacrament. (19) But, to the faithful, who worthily 
jDartake, it is a synaxis, by which they all become one body. 
(20) And, again, it has a sacrificial aspect and character, in 
which (21) the Lord's Supper may be illustrated by the 
Jewish sacrifices, so that it is shown to be (22) a feast 
upon a sacrifice. (23) Nay, even the Gentile sacrifices 
teach by contrast that our table is an altar, and (24) our 
altar a table, which renders it inconsistent with our profes- 
sion (25) that we should, in anywise, partake of both altars 
or both tables. (26) This sacrament requires, therefore, a 
previous self-examination, lest by eating and drinking of it 
unworthily we should (27) be guilty of crucifying Christ 
afresh, and profaning His body and blood; because, (28) 
in the right use of it, all Christians are priests and evangel- 
ists, (29) showing forth the Lord's death, (30) often, that 
is, constantly and perpetually, (31) even till He comes 
again. Scripture, after all, is exceedingly full, and very 
rich on this subject. 

Every one of these heads will be found sustained in 
this single epistle. St. Paul elsewhere says, " We have an 



222 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

altar," and otherwise enriches this teaching. This, then, is 
his Gospel; rather, the Gospel of, Christ and His Spirit. 
And such being the ordinance as he had delivered it to the 
Corinthians (a.d. 53 and 54), we may be sure it was what 
ApoUos found there, on his first visit that same year (a.d, 
54), before they had found time to corrupt it. And such, 
we may be sure, was the Apostolic breaking of bread, in 
which the original believers continued steadfastly, with the 
Apostolic prayers. 

17. INFERENCES. 

Certain inferences from the Apostle's teaching come in 
to fill up this study. For example, (1) women are not 
excluded as from the sacrifices of the law ; (2) there is no 
sacrifice apart from the feast ; (3) no ritual Eucharist which 
the faithful are to gaze upon without partaking ; (4) they 
all come together to " eat the Lord's Supper." Again, 
there is no communicating without (5) " the cup of bless- 
ing," as well as the broken bread. "The cup which vv^e 
bless" is put before "the bread which we break," as if to 
make emphatic " the blood of the Cross," by which He 
" made peace," and without the shedding of which " there 
is no remission." The (6) duty of all Christians, therefore, 
to drink of it — " drink ye all" — according to the original 
precept, seems to be peculiarly enforced. Indeed, there is 
a latent prophecy in these, as in other Scriptures; they 
enfold meanings and rebukes, the force of which could 
never have been felt until the Western Churches had fallen 
into the corruptions of the middle age. Thus, while a 
commemorative sacrifice is delivered to the Church, as its 
grand central idea of worship, (7) the frightful abuses of 
the Romish mass are over and over again forbidden, not 
only by the injunction to keep the ordinances as they were 
delivered, but by the dogmatic argument of St. Paul's 
Gospel; which rests on the principle that Christ himself 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 223 

was once offered, and once only, and that His one offering, 
" once for all," was the perfect and entire satisfaction for 
the sins of the whole world. The attempt to repeat this 
is, indeed, " crucifying Christ afresh." In like manner we 
find the premonition against celebrating (8) "in an un- 
known tongue ; " for the private Christian must bear his 
part and make his response intelligently at " the giving of 
thanks," or Eucharistic doxology of the minister. 



18. OTHER INFERENCES. 

But while these reproofs of middle-age corruptions are 
so clearly involved, I beg the reader to observe that those 
of our own times are just as pointedly anticipated and cor- 
rected. The monstrous indifference and the neglect of the 
Apostolic and Divine injunctions which prevail through 
the entire body of what are called " Evangelical Chris- 
tians," in America, furnish as marked a contrast to the 
scriptural pattern as do the corruptions of Rome herself. 
In our great cities this may not be felt to be a just remark. 
But let any brother " ApoUos " go with me on my circuits, 
even in the old and populous State of New York, and he 
will discover, among the Evangelical Christian denomina- 
tions, a state of things as really, if not as grossly, alien to 
the whole spirit and teaching of the New Testament con- 
cerning the Lord's Supper, and concerning its due and 
constant celebration, as are the pomps and ceremonies of 
Romish altars. "As often as ye do it, ye do show 
forth the Lord's death," says St. Paul. But how often is 
the Lord's death " shown forth " in this appointed way, 
and with these decent and orderly observances, among the 
millions of America who profess to be Christians ? " Phy- 
sician, heal thyself" We distribute Bibles and tracts, and 
remonstrate with the people for neglecting the Lord's Day. 
Is there half so much in the New Testament about the 



224 APOLLOs: ok the way of god. 

Lord's Day as about the Lord's Supper? God send us 
some one, "in the spirit and power of Elijah," to wake up 
the reformation which is needed, and to restore all things. 
Such a reformation, I say it again, is hardly less impera- 
tively demanded by the state of our Christianity, than was 
that of which Wycliffe was the morning star; or that which 
the Titanic Luther undertook for Germany, but which he 
left unfinished, and which our own age is undertaking to 
renew, I trust, in the spirit not merely of reform, but of res- 
toration. 



XI-THE APOSTOLIC PRATERS. 

1. WHAT JOHN BAPTIST TAUGHT. 

The disciples of St. John Baptist felt the want of new 
forms of prayer, to meet their enlarged faith and the near 
approach of the kingdom of heaven. The great pioneer 
did not tell them that with the disappearance of mere 
types, forms of prayer were, also, to pass away. On the 
contrary, he taught Apollos and the rest of the disciples 
whom he had baptized what they needed to learn ; he gave 
them forms of devotion, or at least some one form adapted 
to their spiritual condition. " Lord, teach ns to pray as 
John also taught his disciples," said the twelve to Christ. 
No doubt Apollos, "knowing only the baptism of John," 
taught the prayers of St. John, as well as used them, in 
all his ministrations, before Aquila and Priscilla met him. 
From them he learned not only the Apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship and Eucharist, but also their prayers, — "the 
prayers " in which the Apostolic Church continued stead- 
fastly. Whence these, and what were these ? 

2. WHAT THE LAW PREPARED FOR. 

That was, indeed, a pregnant precept which was given 
by Moses, — the precept which restricted the ordinance of 
bloody sacrifice to the one spot which the Lord should 
choose. We often speak of the Mosaic system as one of 
multiplied immolations and holocausts ; but we forget that, 
whereas, under the patriarchs, from Noah to Job, every 
10* 



226 APOLLOs: or the way of god. 

household priest sacrificed at his own door, the Mosaic dis- 
pensation narrowed down the ordinance not only to an 
official priesthood, but also to the one spot where the true 
sacrifice was to be offered once for all ; that is to say, to the 
spot where they should be done away forever in Christ. But 
not only so, for by the operation of these restrictions there 
was made a vast advance toward the spiritual sacrifices of 
the Gospel. Every household priest ceasing to offer bulls 
and goats, now became the more spiritual ministrant of 
prayer and of God's Word in his own family. God was 
invoked " in all the dwellings of Jacob ; " and there the 
father to the children proclaimed the Law, and handed 
down the Truth, and led them to expect the Messiah. 

3. THE SYNAGOGUE. 

Under that grand historic leader of the goodly fellow- 
ship of the Mosaic prophets, under the holy and venerable 
Samuel, seems to have grown up around "the schools of 
the prophets," which he instituted, that bud of the prom- 
ised Church, the synagogue. The synagogue was a pledge 
of the synaxis ; its prayers, of the " Common Prayer " of 
Christians ; its psalms and hymns, of those which " make 
glad the city of God," in our nobler worship. To the sy- 
naxis, "in every place," the ordinance of ritual sacrifice, 
ennobled and made unbloody, was eventually to be restored 
and given back from the temple. So, under David and 
Solomon, the temple service became enriched by the syna- 
gogue, from which it borrowed the courses and singing 
established by Samuel ; while the " sweet singer of Israel " 
was inspired to elevate and glorify both the temple and the 
synagogue by the incomparable Psalter. Thus " the preach- 
ing of Moses," the reading of the law and the prophets 
every Sabbath day in systematic lessons, with the singing 
of the psalms and the exhortations of the elders, became 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 227 

the blessed resources of faith hi every Hebrew village. 
This continued until, as we read, in Psalm Ixxiv., " all 
the houses of God in the land " were burned up by the 
ungodly ; or, at best, were stripped of the tokens of faith, 
and defiled by the ensigns and the idols of the unbelieving. 



3. THE I]S^STITUTIO]S"S OF SAMUEL. 

Although the synagogue becomes more conspicuous in 
history after the captivity, and during the period which suc- 
ceeded the heroic age of the Maccabees, a careful student 
of the Books of Samuel and of the Kincrs, in connection 
with the Psalms of David, will see that my brief outline of 
Samuel's institutions is fully sustained by the sacred rec- 
ords themselves. The general proposition concerning the 
schools of the prophets and the mission of Samuel has 
been brilliantly elucidated in the late work of an English 
divine, on " Prophecy as a preparation for Christ," and 
therefore I have no need to enlarge my argument on this 
head. I must add my own conviction that the hymns of 
the Old Testament, beginning with that of Miriam, must 
have formed a rich part of the synagogue worship ; for let 
us not suppose we know all of its primitive institutions, 
from what Buxtorf and others have told us of its debased 
remainder. We may well believe that Samuel entrusted to 
its use the hymn of his mother Hannah ; and that under its 
traditional influences and those of the song of Miriam (a 
typical Mary), she was prepared by the Spirit to break forth 
in her own " Magnificat," and to make it forever a portion 
of the worship of Christians, the inimitable Canticle of Re- 
demption. Thus did Mary add the needed doxology to the 
Psalter of her father David, and sanctify it forever, to new 
meanings in a new dispensation. " The songs of David, the 
son of Jesse, were ended," in the far-off vision of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom ; but his daughter, the Blessed Virgin, 



228 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

snatched his harp from the willows, and gave the rapturous 
complement of all Mosaic prophecy, and of the Psalms of 
David, when first "her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour." 

5. CHEISTIAN HYMNS. 

Her Magnificat is the key to the Psalter, the first of 
those " hymns and spiritual songs " which we find in the 
possession of the Church from the Day of Pentecost, when 
many of them were inspired. They magnified with flaming 
tongues " the wonderful works of God." St. Luke, who 
records the songs of Zacharias and of Simeon, and that of 
the angelic choir at Bethlehem, as well as the Magnificat, 
professes to deliver his history from the testimony of wit- 
nesses, and to record things in which Theophilus " had 
been instructed," or catechised. It is entirely consistent 
with any theory of inspiration, therefore, to regard these 
hymns, with others recorded or referred to in his Acts of 
the Apostles, as quoted, verbally, from " the Apostolic 
Prayers," that is, from the use of the synagogue, as enlarged 
and enriched by the Apostles, and as by them delivered to 
every Christian synaxis. Bishop Jebb has left us a very 
suggestive work, in his investigation of the Hebraic paral- 
lelisms of the New Testament, and even allowing that he 
has pushed too far the theory with which he is directly 
concerned, it seems to me to force upon the mind conclu- 
sions of another sort, with respect to that of which I am now 
speaking. The rhythmical character of our Lord's sermon 
on the Mount, as delivered by St. Matthew, may account 
for difierences between it and similar sayings of the master 
in other Evangelists. In other quotations we may have 
direct quotations from His sermons, as such ; in the Bene- 
dictions and like poetical arrangements of his words we 
may have the Holy Spirit's inspired version of the same, as 
adapted to the hymnody of the Church. 



APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 229 



6. APOSTOLIC QUOTATIONS. 

From the later labors of Neale and others, these theo- 
ries, if they be such, receive the strongest confirmation. 
But it would be foreign to my plan to pursue the argument 
further than to refer to some of the undoubted quotations 
of the inspired Apostles, from " the Apostolic Prayers." 
No less than nine of St. Paul's devotional quotations are 
not from the older Scriptures. It is no hindrance to the argu- 
ment to observe that some of these passages are parts of the 
ancient Liturgies in which Neale has identified them ; but it 
suffices to note one quotation, which the Apostle introduces 
with the formula, " Wherefore he saith." What saith ? We 
answer, " the Spirit ; " or, we may answer, " it saith ; " that is, 
the Liturgy or the Hymnody of the Churches. In any case, 
the highest dignity is given to the source from which it is 
quoted, and that source is not the Scriptures. What, then, 
is the source ? In his own peculiar and characteristic fash- 
ion, having quoted a hymn — 

Awake thou that sleepest. 

And arise from the dead. 

And Christ shall give thee light, 

— he immediately makes a digression to the subject of Hym- 
nody, and enjoins the use of antiphonal singing, — for 
such is the import of the text in (1) " psalms and (2) hymns 
and (3) spiritual songs." He makes precisely the same 
reference in his Epistle to the Colossians, and teaches us to 
infer that (1) the Psalter, (2) a Hymnal, and (3) a Carminal, 
or collection of sacred odes, were already recognized parts 
of the Christian worship. No wonder, then, that Pliny's 
account of the early Christians should be based on tliis 
characteristic feature of their worship. What St. Paul 
commanded, he testifies that they did, '' antiphonally 
chanting: an ode to Christ, as God." 



230 APOLLOS: OB THE WAY OF GOD. 



7 FURTHER. 

The entire passage, " Eye hath not seen," etc., proves 
to be a textual quotation from the Liturgy of the Church 
at Jerusalem. So, also, the hymn — 

" The first man Adam 
Was made a living soul. 
The last Adam 
Was made a quickening Spirit '* 

— is quoted with the words " it is written," — written, that is, 
in the Liturgy ; and he who will pursue the subject further, 
in the writings of Bishop Jebb, Dr. Neale, and others, will 
be satisfied that the New Testament is saturated with such 
quotations, and with the Liturgical idioms and phraseology 
with which the whole spirit of the Church was so inebriated 
after the great Pentecostal gift of the Comforter. The 
maiden, we are told, sang the Psalter as she twirled her 
spindle, and the ploughman as he turned the furrow; and all, 
when they came together to join in the Apostolic prayers, 
were able to lift up their voices " with one accord," The 
synagogue service passed into the Liturgy of the Church, 
without any violent change, as the twilight changes to the 
dawn. The early Church was never for a single day with- 
out its " Common Prayers," of whicli the Lord's Prayer 
and the Psalter, with the Lections from the law and the 
prophets, were the marrow. To these the hymnal and its 
doxologies were soon added ; and finally the Lessons from 
the Gospels and Epistles. Often, where the plentitude of 
the Spirit manifested itself in the gift of tongues, there 
was a great temptation to break through the Apostolic ordi- 
nances which had thus grown up. Every one had " a psalm " 
as well as a doctrine. But St. Paul forbids such individual- 
ism, even in these exceptional circumstances, and reduces 
all to system by his precept, " Let all things be done decor- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 231 

oiisly and according to taxis." What this system or taxis 
was, we may infer from other parts of the same epistle. 
He praises them for observing it in some respects, and 
blames them for disobedience in others. He also promises 
to sup2Dlement it on his next visit. But, in all respects, his 
language, if not that of what we should now call a rubrician^ 
is that of one who calls himself a liturge. 

8, THE TAXIS. 

A little reflection will confirm my observation that the 
synagogue worship passed into that of the Church, as a 
matter of course. Not only did the Apostles and their dis- 
ciples frequent the synagogues, and observe in a new spirit 
many of the institutions which they had rejected in the 
deadness of the letter, but we observe everywhere that the 
baptized Israelites, on becoming Christians, departed in 
nothing from their essential habits of prayer. IsTor are the 
unbelieving Jews found to accuse their way of worship of 
any marked departure from that to which they had been 
accustomed, — save only as the temple sacrifices gave place 
to the oblation of the Eucharist. Thus, on the introduc- 
tion of thcCcospel into Europe, how easily the women who 
had been accustomed to pray together as Israelites made 
their transition into the forms of Christian worship, and 
" went to prayer " as aforetime. The same proseuclia^ or 
oratory, in which Lydia and her household had worshipped 
as proselyte Jews, seems to have been their gathering-place 
as believers; and the hymns and prayers which the Apos- 
tles sang in their prison at midnight, when they were 
arrested as Jewish teachers, suggest that as they conformed 
to the usages of the synagogue in observing its hours, so 
also they adopted its forms of prayer for the midnight 
watch. In fact, they seem to have resorted to the temple 
as they had done aforetime ; not surely, save only in certain 



232 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

exceptional cases, to take part in its bloody sacrifices, but 
to enjoy the sacred offices which were there, as in our 
cathedrals, kept up with such sublime efiect, especially in 
the chanting of psalms, and in anthems or songs which 
"praise the beauty of holiness." The whole subject of 
the Apostolic conformities with Hebrew worship is interest- 
ing, and even mysterious ; but it is unaccountable, except 
as we allow that much of it was identical with that of the 
Church. The institutions of Samuel the prophet, we must 
infer, became the base of that taxis which the Apostles 
gave their disciples, and ordained in all the Churches. 

9. THE TRANSIENT AND THE PERMANENT. 

The Apostle, in his Epistle to the Galatians, and else- 
where, demonstrates the antagonism of Jewish forms and 
institutions, when observed as such^ with the law of Christ. 
He denounces not only their circumcision, but even their 
Sabbaths, provided they were insisted upon as essential, or 
even as things to be incorporated with Christianity. But 
he argues against them, in this way, for the very reason 
that there were corresponding institutions of the Gospel 
into which they had passed, and by which they would soon 
be entirely superseded. There were reasons, then, why 
circumcision and bloody sacrifices should cease ; but none 
at all, in the nature of things, why the spiritual offices of 
the synagogue should not be perpetuated in the Church ; 
none at all why the Psalms of David should cease to be 
chanted, or the prayers of the morning and evening should 
not be ofiered in their courses. These were not types and 
shadows, but unchanging truths made parts of the spirit- 
ual worship of an unchanging God. 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 233 



10. EXTEMPORANEOUS PRAYERS. 

I have often asked myself whether the New Testament 
affords any intimations of a departure, on the part of the 
Apostles, from the Liturgical principles of the synagogue, 
as regards public worship. In the writings of the early 
fathers, I find evidences of certain forms of supplication 
which might be called extemporaneous^ at least in some 
degree. But, with perhaps a single exception, the Scrip- 
tures suggest to my mind nothing but the elevation of old 
Jewish offices into Christian worship, by the newness of 
spirit imparted to them, and by the creeds and doxologies 
with which they were amplified. Coming down from Olivet 
after the Ascension, they were ''continually m the temple^ 
praising and blessing God." In the temple, therefore, 
seems to have been that upper room where they continued 
in prayer and supplication, toith one accord. 

We may infer, also, that they praised and blessed God 
in the usual offices of the temple-worship, at the appointed 
hours ; and the expression, with one accord^ favors the idea 
of a community of voices as well as of hearts, as we shall see 
hereafter. The one exception may have been the prayer be- 
fore casting the lots for the choice of a successor to Judas ; 
and yet this very prayer may be only an example of what are 
apparently the extemporaneous prayers of the patristic age. 
It is not said that one of the Apostles prayed and said, but 
" they prayed and said." There was, at least, a responsive 
Amen, More probably they prayed, as we do in the Litany, 
with supplications between the two suffrages into which their 
prayer naturally falls. We learn, soon after, that while 
they celebrated the " breaking of bread," from house to 
house ^ they still " continued daily, with one accord, in the 
temple?'' How tenderly they clung to its Divine courses of 
prayer and praise must be evident from this, and from fre- 
quent references to the hours of prayer, which they so care- 



234 APOLLos : or the way of god. 

fully observed, going up to the temple punctually, with the 
loyal spirit they had learned from its Psalter. In the 
same spirit the blessed Saviour " walked in Solomon's 
porch," at the time of a great festival. So we walk and 
meditate, in cathedral precincts and cloisters. 

11. AN INCIDENT. 

But a test of their devotional habits seems to be fur- 
nished by an event which interrupted all this, and which 
threw them upon their own resources, as it were. Persecu- 
tion began, and the Apostles Peter and John were for- 
bidden to preach Christ to the people. Hereupon, being 
let go, they returned " to their own company," and re- 
ported the case, betaking themselves at once to the Master 
in supplication Here, then, if ever, we might expect an 
extemporaneous prayer, offered by one voice, and detailing 
the facts before God, as the manner of some Christians is, 
in our times. But what was their way of supplication in 
those days ? It would be natural with " our own com- 
pany," in any similar case, to unite in the Litany, or in 
some other well-known form " with one accord," inter- 
jecting, possibly, some few words of special petition. In 
this respect, we should agree with the Apostolic company. 
For we read that " they lifted up their voice^ with one 
accord," and said as follows : 

"Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and 
earth, and the sea, and all that in them is : 

" Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, 
Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain 
things ? 

" The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were 
gathered together against the Lord, and against His 
Christ. 

" For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 235 

Thoii hast anointed, botli Herod and Pontius Pilate, with 
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered 
together. 

" For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel de- 
termined before to be done. 

" And now, Lord, behold their threatenings : and grant 
unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak 
Thy word, 

" By stretching forth Thine hand to heal ; and that signs 
and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy child 
Jesus." 

Here is no extemporaneous effusion at all ; here is no 
enlargement upon the story and details of the case, after 
the manner of a modern impromptu. On the contrary, 
here is an Apostolic Hymn, artificially based upon the 
second Psalm, and adapted to the Church's use in all times 
of persecution or peril. The little company of the faithful 
seem to have known it by heart ; and all together they 
sang it, as we are accustomed to sing the Gloria in JSxcelsis^ 
spontaneously and with one accord, whenever any sudden 
event moves us to praise, during our synods or missionary 
councils. I^or should we fail to note the confidence here 
expressed in the words, — " by stretching forth Thine hand 
to heal." The primitive faithful recognized Christ's hand in 
all that was wrought by His authority, through Apostolic 
ministers. 

12. SUPFEAGES. 

All the habits of the early faithful were, as I have 
afiirmed. Liturgical ; but that is not all. The New Testa- 
ment, especially the Apocalypse, seems to afford us no 
warrant for any other manner of public prayer and praise. 
The worship of heaven, as seen by the holy exile of Pat- 
mos, is not only Liturgical, but the perfection of Liturgic 
adoration. " The pattern in the Mount " is that of Com- 



236 APOLLOs: oi^ the way of god. 

men Prayer, in well-refined and carefully-composed words, 
enlivened by responses and alleluias and songs of salva- 
tion. 

It is from patristic sources, strange as it might seem to 
some, that I gather other ideas, and learn to believe that 
the presbyters or bishop presiding at public worship did 
break forth, on certain occasions, into personal supplications, 
more or less extemporaneous. These, however, were in 
principle liturgical, like our bidding prayers; and being 
constantly interrupted by the fervent responses of the 
people, they furnished the germs of our Litany and sufira- 
ges. It is not my purpose, however, to go beyond the 
domain of Scripture. Let me only say that whoever will 
take the pains to study the primitive liturgies will be satis- 
fied that they musjb have originated in the manner I have 
indicated. They grew; they were not manufactured. 
Hence, they furnish a proof that I have not misunderstood 
the Scriptures. 

13. LECTIOIfirS. 

We know that the law and the prophets were read every 
Sabbath day in the synagogues, by lections or courses of 
reading. This use has passed into the Church ; but it is 
somewhat strange that of this fact we have little or no 
intimation in the New Testament. They came together on 
the first day of the week to " break bread," and to " eat 
the Lord's Supper ; " but it is not said to hear the Word of 
the Lord,— an expression employed generally, if not exclu- 
sively, with reference to the preaching of the Apostles. Of 
course no Christian doubts that the Scriptures were read in 
the Churches ; and we know that the New Testament Scrip- 
tures were written and delivered to the Churches to be so 
read. Again, the patristic testimony on this point is abund- 
ant ; Christians would sooner have been deprived of their 
daily food than of their privilege to hear the Scriptures ; 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 237 

but, this being the case, it is noteworthy that no promi- 
nence is given to it in the inspired narrative. Some things 
were matters of course, it aj^pears, and for that very 
reason were not mentioned. Yet for that reason the 
sturdy fathers of !N"ew England concluded that the read- 
ing of the Scripture was no part of puhlio loorsJiip y and 
until very lately no Scripture was read in the assemblies 
of their descendants. Let this be remembered and reflect- 
ed upon ; for precisely on the same principle they discarded 
almost everything else which the primitive Christians re- 
ceived from the Apostolic age. 

14. THE HOUKS. 

And here let me note more formally what I have had 
occasion to refer to in passing, — that the preservation of 
thehours of prayer and the festival system of the Jews, 
by the Apostles, furnishes a striking proof of the growth of 
Christian worship from the stock of the synagogue and 
the temple. That the third, the sixth, the ninth hour, 
and the midnight watch were so observed, we are 
expressly told, and in such a way as implies the observ- 
ance of the rest. The vision of St. Peter at Joppa, the 
conversion of Cornelius and the opening of the door to the 
Gentiles, were all connected, under the Divine guidance, 
with this observance. So, also, the Apostolic sanctification 
of Pentecost, and the gift of the Spirit upon that day, war- 
rant us in the belief that when kept in the spirit of the 
Gospel, and not of the circumcision, that, and the other 
Christian festivals, like the Christian Sabbaths, are not 
included in St. Paul's objections to the Judaic new moons 
and Sabbatical celebrations. We know how fervently 
he himself observed them : " I must keep this feast that 
Cometh at Jerusalem ; " " he hasted, if it were possible, to 
be at Jerusalem the Day of Pentecost." 



238 APOLLOs: or the way of god. 

15. THE PASCHAL. 

So of Easter : " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, 
therefore let us heep the feast j"^"^ he does not say, " Let us 
abolish it," as some argue. The first Epistle to the Corin^ 
thians is, in fact, an Easter pastoral, exhorting the faithful 
to hallow it with the " unleavened bread of sincerity and 
truth, and to put away the leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness." He commends this spiritual practice, instead of the 
ceremonial search for leaven which was so superstitiously 
performed by the Jews. " Purge out, therefore, the old 
leaven, that ye may be a new lump — as ye are xmleavened^'^ 
— that is to say, as you are now keeping the Passover. So 
all his words suppose the perpetuation of the Paschal Feast. 
The Feast of Tabernacles naturally passed into the observance 
of Christmas, when " the Word was made flesh and taber- 
nacled with us ; " but for this we have no express warrant 
in the New Testament. The prophet Isaiah seems to foretell 
it, however, when, in predicting the birth of the Saviour, 
he foresees the Gentiles rejoicing in it, " like as the joy in 
harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil." 

16. THE CHKISTIAN YEAR. 

No Christian who has ever devoutly followed Christ 
through the Christian year according to this ancient festival 
system can possibly object to it. Were it merely an eccle- 
siastical arrangement to secure a proper and systematic 
attention to the whole Gospel, its wisdom could not be 
gainsayed. But especially in the solemn season of the Pas- 
sion and the Holy Week, one wonders how any believing 
spirit can deny himself the incomparable privilege of hal- 
lowing the time ; of " keeping the Passover and the sprink- 
ling of blood " as Abraham kept it, — by faith in the Aton- 
ing Lamb, who liveth and was dead. Oh, what a loss to my 
pious countrymen who go through this dreary world with- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 239 

out a yearly day of atonement, and a yearly feast of the 
Resurrection ! They little imagine how much their Aveekly 
Easter, the Lord's day, loses in significance for lack of its 
logical base, the Great Feast of the Resurrection. 

17. THE lord's prayer. 

" Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples : " 
so said the Apostles to the great Teacher. And here was the 
time for His answer, if such had been His plan, — " All this 
must pass away with John." But He did not give such an 
answer. When He was instructing them how to preach, in 
a certain emergency. He says, " Take no thouglit before- 
hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate ; " 
but no such intimation is given with respect to prayer. On 
the contrary, our dear Lord and Divine Master gives us the 
corner-stone of the fabric of Christian worship ; He indites 
for us His own inimitable prayer, its sublime invocation, its 
seven 23etitions, and its glorious doxology. The Holy Spirit 
also causes it to be written in the Gospels for our remem- 
brance, and there it stands, to teach us all how to pray 
acceptably in Christ's name, and through His atoning 
merits. Oh, what a majestic prayer ! simj^le as childhood's 
artless words, and yet profound and majestical beyond the 
philosopher's or the poet's conceptions. Well may it serve 
as the key-note of all prayers ; if we rise higher, then to it 
we must descend ; if we fall lower, to it we may come back. 
In the closet and in the great congregation alike, no worship 
is complete if this is wanting. 

18. ITS SPIRIT. 

To the words of his prayer, as recorded by St. Matthew, 
our Lord subjoins this comment, — " For if ye forgive men 
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you ; 
but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 



2J:0 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

Father forgive your trespasses." I very well remember that 
when I was a young student, this appeared to me a critical 
curiosity. Why should this be the only comment ? Why 
should one of seven petitions be the only subject of expo- 
sition? In maturer years I could see the logical secret 
here, as in other discourses of our Lord. He speaks to 
men's tlioughts ; His apparently disjointed words are artic- 
ulated by what was going on in their minds. The disciples 
had heard with reverence ; but He saw that this one peti- 
tion puzzled them, therefore He comments to their inward 
inquiries. But why did this petition specially puzzle them ? 
Archdeacon Freeman has shown that all the rest was bor- 
rowed from the synagogue ; they were even familiar with 
" Our Father," — it was involved in the Abrahamic Cove- 
nant. But the remission of sins, through the atoning blood 
of Him who prayed for His murderers, and died for them 
upon the cross, was now coming into the clear light of the 
Gospel. This petition was glorified upon Calvary : " Father, 
forgive them ;" and our Lord thus marked it as the spirit 
of the new dispensation. This was to be the vital spark of 
all worship distinctively Christian ; here was the sign of 
the cross ; here the scarlet thread ; this was the mark that 
made all things new ; that transformed the shekel of the 
temple into the tribute-money of the kingdom. And so, 
too, He who came " not to destroy, but to fulfil," gave the 
grand principle by which, as we have seen, the worship of 
the old law was baptized. So watered, it crops out into the 
fragrant fruitage of that sublime Liturgy, essentially one in 
all the old Churches, in which " the Holy Church through- 
out all the world doth acknowledge the Trinity." 

19. THE PRESE:N'CE of CHRIST. 

Finally, the Apostolic Prayers are invested with a Sac- 
ramental character, not only by their orbit, around the cen- 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAT OF GOD. 241 

tral Eucharist, but by the grand idea of all Christian wor- 
ship, publicly celebrated. It is a spiritual sacrifice ; sweet 
incense offered to a i^rcsent Redeemer ; " unto Christ as God," 
present in His temple, by His spirit ; seen and recognized 
by faith. This is the moral of what happened to St. 
Thomas : " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed." No need to explore His wounds. In the 
closet He hears us ; in family prayers He accepts and blesses 
us ; but in the synaxis, the gathering together of the two 
or three " unto His name," and for maintaining the per- 
petual service of God among mankind. He vouchsafes His 
spiritual presence in a peculiar degree, and as in a Sacra- 
mental verity, — " Lo, I am with you alway." The offices 
of public worship find their sublime logic in this truth. 
We go to the synaxis to meet our Saviour ; to acquaint 
ourselves with God ; and, in the communion of the Holy 
Ghost, to gain the blessings of a Bethel, as at the foot of 
Jacob's ladder, in the immediate presence of our glorified 
Master. " It is the house of God ; it is the gate of heaven." 

20. WANT OF FAITH. 

This is another glorious truth which the divisions of 
Christians have made obsolete. In America, the abandon- 
ment of the Apostolic Prayers by nine tenths of " Evan- 
gelical Christians " has been followed by a popular indiffer- 
ence to public worship, and the utter loss of its true idea. 
Our own feebly-supported week-day prayers are ridiculed, 
because there is no " audience." There is no conception of 
the Bethel. Youthful Jacob was more Evangelical than we 
are : " The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." Com- 
pare Abram's Bethel, in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, and 
we shall find that the spot had been hallowed, in covenant 
with Abraham, as all places may be in the covenant of 
Christ. Who is there that believes this practically ? It is 



242 APOLLos: oe the way of god. 

thought not only unreasonable, but absurd, that a great 
divine, a profound theologian, a brilliant orator, should 
officiate for a whole hour in a church nearly empty, offer- 
ing prayers with a few old women. While a boy 1 
heard this said of Bishop Hobart's Wednesday and Friday 
prayers in Trinity parish, in New York, which I frequented, 
with childlike interest in that great and holy man. It was 
thought to be a condescension on his part, and an imposi- 
tion on that of those who expected it from sucli an apostle. 
He, however, went to this duty in faith, and to gather 
strength : nothing doubting that he " ministered unto the 
Lord," as well as unto men ; that he met his Master, and 
went forth as from Peniel, having wrestled with God and 
prevailed. So every true pastor goes to the offices of 
prayer and praise, as to Peniel, to Bethel. It is the Court 
of the Crucified ; there he meets his Master ; and there, as 
by " ministers unto the Lord," he feels that thus, " unto the 
principalities and powers, in heavenly places, are made 
known, 5?/ the Churchy the manifold wisdom of God." So 
St. Paul went to a place " where prayer was wont to be 
made," and found only a few pious women who resorted 
thither. He did not despise them ; but speaking to these 
women, he changed their synagogue into a synaxis — the 
first church in Europe — the beginning of the Gospel among 
Greeks and Romans ; the beginning of that westward 
progress of truth which now enlightens America and the 
islands of the sea. It was Lydia and her household that 
made the first-fruits of this work ; and to her continuance 
in steadfast prayer, according to Samuel and the prophets, 
we owe the subsequent adhesion of millions to the Church. 
Thus the water was turned into wine. The church suc- 
ceeded the synagogue ; " they continued steadfastly in the 
Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of 
bread and the prayers." 



Xn-RESTORATION. 



1. THE PATTERN, 



The pattern in the mount, as we have thus traced it 
from the Scriptures, is a system harmonizing with the 
character of God, revealed consistently and harmoniously 
in all ages and dispensations. Order- and method are ap- 
parent tokens of His authorship alike in the Law and the 
Gospel. It is impossible that He should deny Himself; 
and, without an utter overthrow of His attributes, it is im- 
possible that He should be the author of the confusions, 
contradictions, and divisions which we have contrasted with 
the Gospel, as it is revealed in the Scriptures of Evangelists 
and Apostles. 

While it is true, then, as Hooker concedes, that the 
New Testament legislates not as to details of Church 
government properly so called, because, in short, the gov- 
ernment and order of the Church were settled before one 
line of the New Testament was written ; it is yet true 

(1) that we find a harmonious system underlying all that is 
revealed concerning the institutions of the Apostles, and 

(2) that we are commanded to hold fast these institutions, 
and to admonish every brother who rejects them, 

2. hooker's system. 

Hooker's profound argument concerning law comes into 
view at this point. Christ gave the Church authority to 
make laws. Certain elemental laws were ordained by the 



244 APOLLos: oe the way of god. 

Apostles, elders, and brethren, under the guidance of the 
Holy Ghost; and all thhigs thereunder being established by 
the primitive Church, we must regard its laws as bound in 
heaven, unless they can be shown to be positively contrary 
to Holy Scripture. Even allowing, therefore, that the 
whole Church, assembled in its unity, and invoking the 
Holy Ghost in the pure faith of the Gospel, might proceed 
to alter some of those organic laws which were established 
by the same authority, it is reasonable to conclude that 
until such alterations are so made^ it is not lawful for par- 
ticular Christians and local Churches to innovate, and to 
depart from the ancient constitutions of the Churches. 
Rome has done this wantonly and sacrilegiously ; let us, 
then, the more sacredly preserve the primitive institutions, 
and let us be sure, without judging others, that they are in 
the best and safest position who have feared to depart from 
those institutions, and who consequently retain, in all 
organic forms, the original ordinances of the Apostolic 
Church. Such Christians, and such only, can say with 
practical consistency and meaning what the Creed means, 
— " I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church " 

3. AK EXAMPLE. 

The Presbyterians of 1660, in their celebrated mani- 
festo favoring a "moderate Episcopacy," acknowledged 
that this was "agreeable to the Scripture and the primitive 
government, and liveliest to he the way of a more universal 
concord^ if ever the Churches on earth arrive at such a bless- 
ingy Their idea of a " moderate Episcopacy " was pre- 
cisely that which has been restored in America, viz., 
Episcopacy " conjunct with synodical government ; " the 
presbytery and the laity being admitted to synods. But 
this testimony is specially pertinent, because of those 
golden words concerning "universal concord." This is 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 245 

precisely the point which elevates the whole discussion 
above the beggarly dispute about the words episcopos and 
presbyteros^ and gives it the dignity of a grand practical 
attempt to restore the unity which Christ commands ; and 
which He will therefore enable us to realize when our 
hearts truly desire it, more than we desire partisan victory. 
One word more about Hooker. It is extraordinary that 
Hooker's scriptural and profound ideas on these matters 
should be so little studied in America. It is certain that 
some thinker must arise, possibly among Presbyterians, to 
direct renewed attention to the prescience of this great 
theologian, and to point out the confirmation which time 
and human experience have imparted to his argument. 
His way of looking at the matter is so practical, and so 
entirely in accord with those habits of thought in which 
American theologians consider themselves strong, that a 
great revolution will be sure to follow the awakening of 
fresh discussion on the principles of his immortal works. 
In these chapters a very different course of inquiry is pur- 
sued, but it is one that meets the apparent demands of the 
times, and whoever consents to be guided by Hooker will 
arrive at the same conclusions, for all practical purposes. 

4. THE QUESTION. 

The Incarnation of the Son of God is demonstrated by 
His mystical body the visible Church, historically proceed- 
ing from His blessed person. His hands, His breath, His 
voice. His commission to the Apostles, — "As. My Father 
sent Me, even so send I you." 

It is not a question, therefore, concerning Church 
government ; it concerns the evidences of Christianity ; it 
concerns the obedience and unity of the faith, and its pro- 
fession by a united Christendom. And to say no more, he 

is the least to blame for existiner divisions, and is the most 

V* '^ 



246 poLLOs: or the way of god. 

absolutely Catholic and Apostolic in his spirit, if not 
in his actual position, who, amid the present discords, 
adheres to " ^Ae liJceliest loay of a more universal con- 
cord, if ever the Churches on earth are to arrive at such a 
blessing." 

While it is blessed, then, to " pray for the peace of Jeru- 
salem," it is grossly inconsistent to offer such prayers with- 
out making an effort to put one's self, personally, in that 
" likeliest way ; " or to move one's own Church or Society 
toward that way, as fast as possible, in constant dependence 
upon the Holy Spirit of God, and looking to Him for wis- 
dom and direction. 



5. DELUSIVE PROJECTS. 

Organic, visible unity is essential to a body derived 
from Christ's body ; at least to its perfection. All plans, 
however piously proposed and intended, which contemplate 
the perpetuation of sectarian names and divisions, and 
which aim only at a superficial unity of good feeling among 
such divisions, must, therefore, prove abortive. They pro- 
ceed on the fundamental falsehood that the Churches can 
never practically repent, and be restored to the organic 
unity which was established by the Apostles, and which 
the Apostolic Church so beautifully exemplified in the 
Nicene age. They involve a deliberate rejection of one 
faith, as professed with one accord, by all the faithful, and 
a no less deliberate refusal to be made all one in Christ, 
upon the original constitutions of the Church. They are 
contrary to " one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," — to that 
unity which Christ describes to be as the Father and Son 
are one, and which renders schismatical discord impossible ; 
which, however we may fail to realize it on earth, is the 
unity that every believer is bound to recognize, and, as far 
as possible to seek and to ensue. 



APOLLOS: OB THE WAY OF GOD. 247 



6. PRACTICAL UNITY. 

If every Evangelical Christian, instead of amusing him- 
self with such delusive schemes and projects, would concern 
himself simply to bring his own example, and that of his 
people, back to the original pattern^ then, it is evident, 
there would be a convergence among all such Christians, 
and they would soon find themselves in " the likeliest way" 
to realize this universal concord. And, to illustrate my 
position by the actual state of Christendom, let us see how 
this rule would work. Supposing the " Old Catholics " of 
Germany should take this ground, heartily and honestly, 
and should set themselves to work back to the precise 
position in which the Churches would have continued had 
the Papacy never disturbed the primitive constitutions; 
and supposing the Lutherans of Germany, at the same 
time, should engage in a similar efibrt, is it not probable 
that they would very soon find themselves brought to- 
gether, and made ready for - fusion ? Now, until such 
blessed results are bestowed upon us by the Spirit, I hold 
that every Christian is a practical Catholic; I mean a 
Christian of the Scriptural and Apostolic pattern, who, 
according to the light and wisdom given unto him, walks 
by this rule, and aims at this great end. 

7. THE EXISTING EVIL. 

The present condition of things is simply intolerable. 
Sectarianism deadens and hardens the popular heart against 
the truth ; it begets a general Pilate sj)irit, that sneers at 
Christ, and asks, " What is truth?" It tends to drag 
everything downward. It begins in the spirit, but ends in 
the flesh. It makes all things unstable and uncertain, and 
hence "the Faith," as such, becomes a lost idea. Society 
itself tends to dissolution where it is a power. It disorders 



2i8 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

a nation, in proportion as it prevails in it ; it weakens all 
that is good, and gives strength to all that is bad. He who 
can consent to such a state of things, because, in the 
general wreck, he, or his particular sect, has a large share 
of the spoils, must have little love for the brotherhood, and 
less of the spirit of the Master. He who can look upon 
tlie success or prosperity of his own party, and reflect not 
how Christ mourns over the scattering of His family, must 
be a very narrow Christian, or no Christian at all. He only 
is living in harmony with the spirit of Christianity who 
habitually looks on the confusions which exist among 
believers as deformities and diseases too horrible to be 
thought of, save to be cured as speedily as possible ; and 
he who lives and prays and labors for this cure, according 
to his best knowledge and ability, he is a primitive Chris- 
tian indeed, and let him be sure that he is not living in 
vain. 

8. EXPLAISTATIO]^. 

I do not write in any spirit of proselytism. I do not 
aim to pick up converts, but to awaken consciences, and to 
alarm reflecting minds. Dearly as I love my Church; 
infinite as are the blessings I find in her communion ; sweet 
as are my daily experiences of her primitive character; 
happy and contented as I am in such a heritage, — I am, 
nevertheless, wide awake to her defects, and painfully 
aware of the injustice she constantly does to herself by the 
side she sometimes turns toward " them that are without." 
I should consider it arrogant and hateful to Christ to adopt 
the Laodicean tone, and to invite others to acknowledge 
that she is rich, and has need of nothing. Therefore, I 
refrain myself, and say only, " Whereto we have already 
attained, let us v/alk by the same rule, let us mind the same 
thing, . . . and if in anything we be otherwise minded, 
God shall reveal even this unto us." 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 249 

Such is my reply to the popular objection. With great 
apparent justice it is often said, " All schemes of unity are 
simply schemes to build up one's own sect or system. 
Beginning with the Papist, and coming down to the latest 
novelty-monger, the propagandist of an " ism," shows you 
clearly that all men must allow him to do the thinking for 
them, and rally to unity by flocking to his personal invita- 
tion, " Let us all be Presbyterians ; let us all be Baptists ; 
let us all be Episcopalians," — that's all it amounts to. But 
such is not my plan. I merely call men to a thorough 
review of the Scriptures, and leave them to make their own 
applications of truth, and to decide for themselves how it 
should influence them. Somebody will prove to me that, 
allowing all I have said, it does not follow that my convic- 
tions of practical duty should be his. By no means. I 
leave all that to the Holy Spirit of God. If I have spoken 
for Him and testified His truth. He will bless it to the souls 
of my brethren. I have written in meekness, according to 
my instructions, and I leave it to His blessing ; " if God, 
perad venture, will give grace to those who oppose them- 
selves to the acknowledging of the truth." Such is at 
least the testimony of my conscience. If I have deceived 
myself, may God and His children forgive me. If my 
words be not according to the Gospel, I say anathema to 
ray own " wood, hay, and stubble." May God burn them 
up, and save me from the burning, for the abundance of 
His mercies in Christ. Amen. 



9. REMEDIES. 

With such views, and, I humbly trust, in sucli a spirit, 
I have thus far examined the way of God as I find it in 
the Scriptures. I have shown that long after the holy and 
learned ApoUos had known, personally, the salvation of 
God in Christ, he condescended to learn this w^ay of God 
11* 



250 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

"more perfectly," and to bring his individual character 
and piety into the most entire subjection to Apostolic laws, 
ordinances, and examples. I have argued that the truly 
Evangelical Christian will copy this example, and, in all 
things, subject his individuality to the same " pattern in 
the mount ; " the same law and analogy of inspired wis- 
dom. 

Here I shall be answered, peradventure, with a Tu quo- 
que. Yes, I own it my duty, as it is yours ; and so far 
from fearing this rejoinder, I invite it. It is impossible, I 
say again, for anybody, more ardently than I do, to love 
his own Church, communion, or society, in and for itself. 
If any brother finds his spiritual life fed and nourished, 
and his whole soul contented where he is, just so it is with 
me. If it were consistent with Cliristian principle, how 
gladly would I retire from the possibility of controversy 
with good men, from the pain of being misunderstood, and 
the smart of being misrepresented ; and live the sweet life 
prepared for me, in the precious communion of that an- 
cient, Apostolic Church, in which Providence has placed 
me. But, no ; this selfishness is excluded by the Spirit of 
Christ and His Gospel ; and I am bound by Christian duty 
to two things: (1) to seek the restoration of my own 
Church to the primitive pattern, and (2) to promote a sim- 
ilar restoration among others, till, by the operation of the 
Spirit, " %oe all cotne^ in the unity of the faith, unto a per- 
fect man ; unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." 

10. THE STAND-POINT. 

To give an outline of the Catholic and Apostolic sys- 
tem, in its abstract perfection, and to revive the dormant 
idea of what Catholicity means, is my aim and purpose. 
What I propose, therefore, involves no supercilious claim 
that my own Church needs no reformation ; nor does it in- 



APOLLOS : OR THE WAY OF GOD. 251 

volve the folly of saying to others : "Accept unity by ac- 
cepting her communion in place of yours." By no means. 
As a Catholic, I begin by lamenting the condition in which 
we stand, in the particular, local Church of which I am a 
member. I trust we are not a Sardis nor a Laodicea. I 
fear we are far from being a Philadelphia or a Smyrna. 

. At another time, and in another line of things, I am 
not unprepared, indeed, to vindicate my own Church, and 
the strong claims she has to speak with authority, and to 
"let no man despise her." This does not consist with my 
present purpose, however. Confessions are more pertinent. 
In many things we have declined from the pattern, (l) 
Though we do not bear the name of any human leader, we 
have, in this country, permitted ourselves to wear a secta- 
rian name, and, in so far, to hide our light under a bushel. 
It would have been possible, and it is yet possible, to call 
ourselves by some primitive designation quite as inoffen- 
sive, and yet more consistent with the great principle of 
testifying, in everything and at all times, against the sect 
idea, and the division of Christ's body. The Easterns are 
less censurable than other ancient Churches in this respect. 
The Latins are guilty of that hideous note of schism which 
identifies the " Roman " with the Catholic name ; and di- 
vers branches of their communion are yet more thoroughly 
sectarianized under the names of " Maronites," "Melchites," 
" Uniats," and the like. All flesh has corrupted the way of 
God in this respect ; and because words are things, every 
one of these names is a barrier to unity. " The disci- 
ple's w^ere called Christians " in Antioch ; in the Creed, the 
Church is styled "Catholic and Apostolic." Subordinate 
names are only tolerable when they do not conflict with the 
principles thus expressed in Scripture, and in the organic 
symbol of the Church. 

And in many other minute details we have sadly de- 
parted from the primitive pattern. I instance (2) disci- 



253 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

pline. Only its shadow remains to us. Its fearful decay is 
portentous. A Jeremiah might well be sent to weep among 
us, as over the dust and ruins of Jerusalem. I suppose the 
restoration of primitive discipline impossible, in a divided 
state of Christianity. It is a blessing only vouchsafed to 
the Apostolic spirit. But, on this point, and on the practi- 
cal revival of what theoretically remains to us, a volume 
might be written, and I add no more now. 

(3) The tithe, or something like it — some definite system 
of offering of our substance to God on " the first day of 
the week as God hath prospered us " — I hold to be a Scrip- 
tural principle. We have no financial system among us ; 
we " rob God " — oh, how fearfully — as if by system. (4) 
Some system of calling into the sacred ministry, and of 
obedient responding on the part of the called, seems alike 
Scriptural and necessary to the propagation of the Gospel. 
(5) An Apostolic organization of the gifts and faculties of 
pious women, as also of unmarried men, is clearly recog- 
nized in the Scriptures. Because such institutions were 
grossly abused in the middle ages, we have failed to reform 
them, and have cast away our professed principles of re- 
form in so doing. A married clergy is a principle of the 
Gospel ; so, also, is an unmarried exceptional class of clergy- 
men. (6) A catechetical system for the training of the 
Church's children, and another for the instruction of con- 
verts, is sadly lacking among us. (7) A reduction of the 
Episcopal office to its primitive dimensions ; the establish- 
ment of a modest Episcopate, with its strong presbyterate, 
in every considerable town, and the effectual evangeliza- 
tion of the surrounding villages, by this system, — this is a 
palpable want ; and till we begin to realize it, Ave must 
confess that our light, in this respect also, is '' hid under a 
bushel." We have the essence of the primitive institu- 
tions as to organic unity ; but its functional vitality needs 
revival and restoration. The " Moderate Episcopacy," sug- 



ArOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 253 

gested by the old Presbyterians, is strong in this feature, 
and we are weak in so far as we fail to realize it. 



11. THE POSITIONS OF OTHERS. 

I have instanced these great inconsistencies, and I might 
add divers others, to show that I acknowledge a great 
v\'ork, as remaining to be done among us, and to prove my 
sincerity, in suggesting a return to the primitive and Scrip- 
tural pattern as the common duty, while I leave it to every 
man's conscience to say how and where he is to work. 

For I can imagine a devout brother of the Lutheran or 
the Presbyterian communion answering me somewhat as 
follows : " I own that there is much in the Scriptures which 
modern sectarianism fails to realize. I allow the force of 
much which you have urged upon my conscience ; but it 
appears to me no part of my duty to go over to your 
Church. I feel, on the contrary, that I should stay where I 
am, and bear my testimony. I am providentially placed 
where I am. I must try to rouse my own people to a new 
spirit ; I must pray the Holy Ghost to revive His own 
work among them in His own way." What should I an- 
swer? I can only say, with the prophet, " Go in peace.'^ 
The conditions of modern Catholicity do not permit me 
to speak as I must have done in the days of Cyprian. This 
is felt so deeply that the tone of a Cyprian, in these days, 
excites disgust. It is illogical and impertinent. The only 
answer is, — " Physician, heal thyself." Till we illustrate our 
own principles more practically, it becomes us to be very 
modest. 

12. HUMILIATIONS. 

Well may Dr. Dollinger remark that tliorc has been 

enough of polemics, and that our present want is of irenics. 

The pattern in the mount is nowhere realized in its com- 

W 



254 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

pleteness. To those who know our own communion by an 
inside view it is, indeed, "all glorious within;" but the ex- 
ternal aspect has not been such as to impress the same con- 
viction upon others. For thirty years we have been dis- 
graced by a new school of Judaizers, laboring to build 
again that which our glorious old reformers destroyed ; a 
school starting out of that Oxford where Wiclif was bred ; 
where Ridley and Latimer lighted that candle which shall 
never be extinguished, and where Cranmer "bathed his 
hand in fire " for the testimony of Jesus ; a school of theo- 
rists, mighty in some branches of learning, but grossly de- 
ficient in others ; a school bred of a morbid reaction from 
the Evangelical party of the pious Simeon, the saintly 
Richmond, and the pure-minded Wilberforce. It is one of 
the most unaccountable events in the history of fanaticism, 
this recusancy of educated Englishmen ; this revolt from 
common-sense ; this most illogical outbreak against the 
Avhole sj)irit of English history from the Saxon times and 
the times of the Plantagenets, all the way down to the ex- 
pulsion of the fourth Stuart. It is, moreover, an ignoble 
surrender of a genuine Catholicity, and of the vantage- 
ground held by England for the future triumph of the 
Primitive faith. And then, the period chosen for such a 
reactionary folly; the times of Ilirsclierand Montalembert 
and Dollinger ; the times when the wisdom and foresight 
of the great Anglican reformers were never so clearly de- 
monstrated ; the times of the Civiltd CattoUcct^ of the 
Vatican Council, of new dogmas, and of Papal self-annihi- 
lation. That England should have bred such a movement 
at such a period of the world's j)rogress, must go with 
other facts that seem providentially permitted, to illustrate 
the awful nature of that sin ao^ainst lio-ht and truth wliich 
is punished by " strong delusion to believe a lie." Equal 
scandals in the opposite direction — reactions born of reac- 
tion — are the beggarly scepticism which clothes itself in 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 255 

scientific forms, while it is but a petitio principii from be- 
ginning to end ; and the shallow Erastianism that aims to 
reduce the Church of England to a level with those State 
Churches of the continent, which, for their impotent and 
degrading subserviency to mere state-craft, and for their 
utter sterility as handmaids of the Gospel, are the scandal 
of Christianity. 

13. THE OTHER SIDE. 

When the current of a majestic river flows clear and 
strong in its natural bed, such are the counter-currents that 
set back and wash and wear alike the right bank and the 
left with eddying pools that stagnate and foul the air. So 
the grand tide of the primitive evangel was marked by the 
refluent waves of Judaism on the one side, and Gnosticism 
on the other. It is humiliating to live in the same age 
with a Manning and a Colenso ; but " there must be here- 
sies," says the great Apostle. There must be an Alexan- 
der the coppersmith, and an Elymas the sorcerer, wherever 
the everlasting Gospel is making to itself a free course, 
and glorifying itself with new and triumphant success. In 
point of fact, the past thirty years in Anglican Christen- 
dom have been a period of unexampled progress and de- 
velopment in all that is earnest and real and true to the 
Cross of Christ. In the spread of its episcopate and its 
missions, in the revival of dormant energies, in the conse- 
cration of wealth to church-building and to every depart- 
ment of Christian enterprise, in generous intercourse with 
ancient Churches, and in vigorous cooperation with Conti- 
nental reform ; in the new spirit, in short, which has been 
quietly and strongly working in its organic forces as well 
as in its literature and art, it has never so fully realized the 
prayers and aspirations of its martyr-bishops and of the 
great Caroline doctors, as in this same generation of " blas- 
phemy and rebuke," of false brethren within and of politi- 



256 APOLLos: or the way of god. 

cal treacheries round about. I merely state these facts, 
and challenge attention to this true spirit of the Anglican 
Church in our times. It is a loving spirit. It is the Cath- 
olic spirit in the only legitimate sense of the term. It is 
far from being hierarchical or mediaBval. It is simply prim- 
itive, clinging to the institutions of the Apostolic and mar- 
tyr ages, because these are most in accord with the Scrip- 
tures, and because they reflect the mind of Christ ; in a 
word, because they afford the surest remedy to existing evils, 
and the readiest way to the restoration of unity. 

14. THE TRANSITION. 

The Reformation waits to be completed. It has not 
been dead, but sleeping ; and God is now, by His Spirit, 
reviving His work. To imagine that the condition into 
which reformed Christendom has fallen is anything more 
than one of transition, is to doubt the promises of Christ. 
We have all gone astray like lost sheep, " we have turned 
every one to his own way ; " but there is " a way of God." 
and to that, with one consent, we must now return. 

The Reformation was an appeal to the neglected Scrip- 
tures, and just so far as that appeal was sustained against 
the Pope and his Jesuits, in the spirit of the Scriptures, it 
has stood fast. But where tlie spirit of mere antagonism 
to Popery was allowed to overtop the spirit of simple obedi- 
ence to the Word of Christ, this frenzy of antagonism de- 
feated itself. Whole pages of Scripture were surrendered 
to Jesuitism, as Luther surrendered the Epistle of St. 
James. The Jesuits used their opportunity most adroitly. 
Every text for which Luther and Calvin could find no use^ 
they took into their own service. How cunningly they 
have used them, the history of three centuries demon- 
strates. But they have outwitted themselves. /Their late 

Council has reduced their system to the absurd. Now it 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 257 

is our turn. The opportunity of truth revives. If we are 
wise, the primitive unity and the primitive orthodoxy are 
about to be renewed, not immediately, but progressively, 
as Christians become less unworthy of so great a blessing. 
This unity, according to the words of the Master him- 
self, is the essential prerequisite to missionary success and 
the conversion of the world. 

15. NEGLECTED SCEIPTUEES. 

It has been my object to revive the power of those 
Scriptures which the Continental reformers neglected, and 
which the Jesuits have been able to appropriate and 
abuse with a malevolent triumph. It is wonderful how in- 
geniously they have turned all these Scriptures into grist 
for their mill ; and how the rejection of them by the re- 
formed has operated to convince thousands of such men as 
the late Comte de Montalembert that theirs is the Scriptu- 
ral religion, and that Protestants believe nothing in Scrip- 
ture but what happens to suit their tastes. I assure my 
Evangelical brethren that in France and Germany there 
are thousands of devout Romanists who honestly and in- 
tensely imagine that they only believe the whole of the 
Scriptures. Unless this peril is provided for, there will 
soon be thousands in America who will show themselves of 
the same opinion. Such men as the late Count de Maistre 
quote text after text, honestly though perversely, and use 
them to the confusion of Protestants ; and they make con- 
verts, simply because the Romanists understand these texts 
to mean something, while the Protestants make them to 
mean absolutely nothing. 

16. THEIR REAL PURPORT. 

These neglected Scriptures, rightly understood, are, 
nevertheless, the strong-est armory against Romanism. I 



258 APOLLos : ok the way of god. 

have reviewed them, and placed them in their true light. I 
have not given them a deceitful handling; and I have 
shown that they have their fitting place, and their precious 
use in the " Way of God." I have shown that the Way 
of God is not Romanism ; I have demonstrated that it is 
not popular Christianity. 

My appeal has been not to a text here and there, but 
to the whole spirit and structure of the New Testament. 
Doubtless I have made mistakes, and gratefully will I ac- 
cept corrections. But I am sure the great outline of my 
argument is sober truth, and cannot be answered. In no 
proud spirit do I speak ; but in simple love and earnestness 
I say. Let it be answered if it be possible. Or, so far as it 
is true, let it be accepted, and practically wrought out, by 
better and abler men. 



17. THE TEST. 

But why am I so sure that what I see in Holy Scripture 
is really there ? I subject myself to a test, which can easily 
be applied. I have appealed to "the Bible, to nothing 
but the Bible." I have " searched the Scriptures," and 
find " that these things are so." But a Jesuit, for example, 
sees it difierently. I turn to the Jesuit, then, and I say to 
him, " Show that I am mistaken by an appeal to historic 
facts. If the Christians of the Apostolic age ; if those 
from whom and by whose testimony we receive the Scrip- 
tures ; if they, in those writings which are providentially 
preserved, understood these Scriptures as you do, I will 
concede that I am probably mistaken. If they, with one 
voice, understood Scripture as you do, about the Eucha- 
rist ; if they interpreted Thou art Peter as you do ; if they 
uniformly, or even generally, received and practised, accord- 
ing to your interpretation, and not according to that which 
I have honestly supposed to be the plain sense of Scripture, 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 259 

— then I will acknowledge myself in the wrong. I am 
willing to meet that test ; I dare you to accept it and abide 
the issue." 



18. THE SCEIPTURAL GROUND. 

The enemy, thus challenged, has been permitted to 
claim the whole field of antiquity to himself; not because, 
in point of fact, he has any part or lot in it, but because 
Evangelical Christians have felt themselves unable to put 
in a superior claim. How strong is the position, then, of 
the Scriptural Christian, who, because he is Scriptural, is 
therefore able to maintain his contest with any adversary, 
whether in the field of Scripture or in that of the historical 
Church, so long as the Church itself was Scriptural, Con- 
fidently, then, do I throw out this challenge to the Jesuit. 
Scripture is all I need ; but he proclaims that I misinter- 
pret the Scriptures. Very well. I am willing to go with 
you to the interpretation of the first ages ; I will meet you 
there, and will abide by the result. This is a course to which 
Scripture itself compels me ; for the Spirit gave to the 
Church (1) Truth, (2) Mission to teach Truth, and (3) the 
Promise to be with its witnesses forever. Now, it cannot 
be that the Apostles exhausted this promise, or that their 
immediate successors forfeited their claim to it. It cannot 
be that the Christians of the martyr ages — those to which 
all Christians look for the testimony on which the Canon of 
the New Testament depends — it cannot be that the Church 
which was represented at Xicsea, a.d. 325, and which 
breathed its spirit in that sublime confession of faith called 
the Kicene Creed ; it cannot be that the Church of this 
primitive period was ignorant of Apostolic institutions, or 
was abandoned to the father of lies, universally, in all its 
branches. Tlie spirit of truth was to abide with it forever. 
What does this promise signify, if the Apostolic age was 



260 APOLLOS: OE THE WAY OF GOD. 

immediately succeeded by a umversal abandonment of its 
constitutions, and as general a departure from its truth? 
A Scriptural Christian is led by such considerations to con- 
sent, readily, to the principle of interpretation which rules 
in every court of justice ; and when any text is disputed, 
under the influence of modern prejudices or habits of 
thought, he readily admits that the contemporary exposi- 
tion is the most logical and the strongest. Dost thou appeal 
unto antiquity, then, unto antiquity shalt thou go. Thus I 
answer the Jesuit. 



19. SUPREMACY OF TRUTH. 

I run no risk. Bishop Jewel gave the same challenge, 
at Paul's Cross, three hundred years ago, and it was never 
answered. Alas ! that the reformers of the Continent 
placed themselves in a position which rendered it impossi- 
ble for them to do as Jewel did ; alas ! that for three cen- 
turies the Reformation has been arrested, and that vast re- 
gions have been given back to the Jesuit as the sad conse- 
quence. Surely, in the new aspect of all questions pre- 
sented by our own epoch, it is important to remedy this 
fault. The whole secret of Rome's successes, and of its te- 
nacity of life, is to be found in these three things : (1) the 
divisions of the reformed ; (2) the practical surrender to Ro- 
manism of many texts of Scripture which it perverts, but 
which Evangelical Christians reject ; and (3) the stupid 
concession to its falsehoods of that prestige of primitive 
antiquity which, in the nature of things, belongs to truth 
exclusively. 

This last is my present point. Truth was given to the 
Church in all its purity by Christ, and by His spirit in the 
Apostles. The falling away was necessarily subsequent, 
and could not have been immediate. Truth only is ancient. 
Lies are innovations. It has taken nineteen centuries for 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 261 

the lie of Papal infallibility to coin itself into dogma, 
even in the corrupt atmosphere of a worldly court; and 
there is no dogma of Romanism which has not a history 
essentially similar. He, then, can have little confidence in 
his own interpretations of Holy Scripture who is unwilling 
to reduce them to the test of a superior antiquity. You 
say, " It is enough to show that my religion is in Scrip- 
ture." But, then, I have shown that there is much in Scrip- 
ture which has no place in your religion, and that a relig- 
ion which leaves this out is not Scriptural. We difier in 
the understanding of Scripture ; and I have shown that a 
Scriptural Christian cannot possibly object to consult the 
understanding of those primitive ages from whose testi- 
mony we take the New Testament itself. He only who 
occupies this position is master of the whole field of con- 
troversy. 

20. THE RALLYIlSrG POINT. 

How grandly, for example, was this principle used 
against Petau by brave old Bishop Bull, in defending the 
doctrine of the Trinity against that Jesuit's subtle attempt 
to class it with Komish dogmas, as an afterthought, un- 
known to i^rimitive antiquity. Such was his triumph- 
ant success, that Romanism itself, in its nobler school, 
bowed down and did homage alike to Truth and to its Apos- 
tolic champion. That was a day too bright to be forgot- 
ten, when the Episcopate of France, by the hands of Bossuet, 
sent a tribute of gratitude to an Anglican prelate for his 
victory over the Jesuit. Bull's reply to Bossuet defines 
the position of Anglican Orthodoxy, and identifies it with 
Antiquity. Now I wish to see all true Christians massed 
together in a position equally impregnable. That is what 
our epoch demands. We must consent to rally to this 
point ; and, on this Scriptural ground, to meet all enemies, 
" Striving, together^ for the faith of the Gospel." Even in 



262 APOLLos: oe the way of god. 

contending with those who reject Scripture, and who boast 
themselves in the assumption of a superior philosophy, it 
is important that Scriptural Christians should agree as to 
Scripture itself, and the rules of its interpretation. 

This is the position to which Dollinger and his allies 
find themselves driven ; it is the position which the old re- 
formers of Germany and Switzerland unhappily failed to 
occupy, so robbing themselves of the victory. The moment 
they placed themselves where they could not meet the 
enemy by such an argument, they gave him an advantage 
which has been used with terrible effect. He seized it 
greedily ; he cunningly claimed all the councils, all the 
early fathers and martyrs, and impudently pretended that 
their testimony was in his favor. The Protestant divines 
knew the contrary ; but, then, they could not prove it, with- 
out proving themselves as really involved in novelties as the 
Jesuit, Experience has accumulated proofs that this was 
indeed a fatal mistake. If the Reformation is to be revived, 
then the mischief which has blocked reformation for three 
centuries must be repaired. We must Avork to the wind- 
ward of our adversaries ; we must stand upon the Scrip- 
tures, in their integrity / we must accept " the way of 
God,^' as it Avas unfolded to Apollos, and as the Apostles 
delivered it to the Churches. The mo ment we do this, lo ! 
we clothe ourselves with all the testimony of the primitive 
age, as with a garment. We are in a position to destroy 
Komanism as the mere invention of the middle ages. In a 
word, we are the Catholics, and they the heretics ; we 
occupy the only ground on which the restoration of unity 
is possible ; and we preach reform to Greeks and Latins, 
with a power their honest men cannot resist. Dollinger 
must meet us on that ground; and when "Evangelical 
Christians " and " Old Catholics " meet in this Unity, 
the Reformation is renewed ; the Restoration is begun. 
Let us hear the Spirit's voice to the Churches : " Repent, 



AP0LL09 : OK THE WAY OF GOD. 2G3 

therefore, and do yoitr first v^orhs / " " Restore your judges 
as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning ; af- 
terward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the 
faithful city." 

21. THE TRUE SPIRIT. 

The restoration of the Church to orthodoxy and unity 
is the condition of missionary success, and of the evangeli- 
zation of the world. That is my position. Christ has said 
it, in His grand intercession; Christ has enjoined it; the 
existence of truth requires it ; and the Holy Spirit of Truth 
can accomplish it. Want of faith sees mountains in the 
way ; but faith can remove mountains. Nothing is want- 
ing but this primitive faith, made perfect by primitive zeal 
and love. Our prayers and efforts, therefore, should be di- 
rected to the revival of this spirit. Just so long as any one 
subordinates the cause of the Gospel itself to that of his 
own Church, his own sect, his own Paul, his own ApoUos, 
his own Cephas, or even his own Christ, — just so long his 
is the sect spirit and not the Apostolic spirit. He is re- 
buked by the whole spirit of the Scriptures. 

On the other hand, he who identifies the Catholic and 
Apostolic spirit Avith the perpetuation of such varieties of 
name and oro;anization, while he would maintain them on a 
basis of compromise — " agreeing to differ " — is not less with- 
standing the Scriptures and contending against truth in its 
purity, and unity in its power. What then ? The first thing 
is a general concession that the existing state of things is 
temporary, and only tolerable till a return to unity can be 
wrought out by the power of the Spirit, and under the 
guidance of His providence. Let every Christian look 
upon the disorganized state of Christendom with sorrow of 
heart, and yearn and pray and labor for restoration. Then, 
when the servants of God take pleasure in the stones of 
the old temple, and "favor the dust thereof," then — God 



264: APOLLos: or the way of god. 

himself shall " arise and have mercy upon Zion — the time 
to favor her, yea, the set time will have come. ... So 
the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the 
kings of the earth His glory." Would to God every Chris- 
tian who reads these words would agree with me to pray 
daily in his closet, in the use of this Psalm, adding, "Thy 
kingdom come." This is the end for which I write ; it is 
much better than proselytism. 

22. A commo:n" standard. 

The next thing is, to direct attention to the common 
standard ; to Holy Scripture, that is, as received and be- 
lieved while the Church was yet undivided. Imagine the 
ennobling influences of kind and loving discussions u23on 
this standard, among the Christians of America and Eu- 
rope. They should be carried on as inquiries; each writer 
should speak out his convictions, but as one willing to be 
corrected; waiting to be instructed; anxious only to con- 
tribute something to the common edification. It would 
not be long, provided such were the spirit of Christians, 
before they would be found working toward definite results. 
Far be it from me to predict the processes ; the Lord moves 
in His own ways, and when His people are willing and 
waiting to be blessed. His own right hand and His mighty 
arm can cleave the seas and open the way. 

23. THE OUTLOOK. 

"When I look over the millions in America who know 
not God, and when I reflect upon the power which a re- 
vived Christianity would exert over the whole population ; 
when I reflect how impotent Avould be the infidel, and how 
powerless would be the Jesuit, before such a combination 
of all who "love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," I con- 
fess it seems impossible that any true Christian can content 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 265 

himself with the existing state of things, even for an hour. 
For the common enemy is at hand ; God, in His solemn 
providence, is stirring up a tempest round about us, which 
seems designed to force upon us, as a practical question, the 
revival of primitive concord. We are confronted every- 
where, (1) by a portentous indifference to religion, to 
morality and duty ; (2) by an equally portentous scepti- 
cism, which borrows scientific forms, and finds a greedy 
welcome from the popular appetite ; and (3) by a reactionary 
spirit, that indolently accepts credulity as the remedy for 
unbelief, and so gives opportunity to the unscrupulous and 
untiring fanaticism of the Jesuit. It is madness to scatter 
our forces, if we are in earnest about truth, when we see 
such an array against us. But so God works in His provi- 
dence ; so He scourges us for our divisions, and recalls us to 
unity. What but partisan rivalry and personal pride can 
resist such an appeal ? Before the love of Christ and the 
interests of His universal reign, what are these but chaff? 
May the Holy Ghost burn them up by the flame of Divine 
love, and blow them away, as by a rushing, mighty wind, 
with all besides that stands in the way of the unity and 
orthodoxy which the Scriptures require. This only is the 
spirit of Christ ; and I am sure that the spirit of any ism^ 
however respectable, is in comparison too contemptible to 
be harbored in a believer's breast. Only let us who accept 
this truth in theory remember, specially, that truth itself 
may be held in the spirit of sect, and that a Church bigot 
may be the slave of an ism like the old Pharisees. 

24. THE ANGLICAN STAND-POINT. 

It has been common among us Anglicans of the Anglo- 
American communion to flatter ourselves that our Apos- 
tolic claims are destined to prevail, and to win over the re- 
flecting and the educated among all Christians of other 
12 X 



266 APOLLos: ok the way of god. 

names. Far be it from me to deny or aifirm any such 
thing, in view of " the signs of the times." The real issues 
become complicated and mysterious every day. The Ger- 
man immigration, the Chinese irruption, the African prob- 
lem, the menaces of Jesuitism, all these, and other features 
of the age, to say nothing of materialism, sensualism, and 
communism, teach us to be very humble, and to wait on 
the Lord in patience of hope, and in the fulness of faith. 
I frankly confess, and I avow it with a due sense of my ac- 
countability to my dear brethren in the episcopate, but 
with a deeper sense of my accountability to the Master, 
that I dare not boast of any such expectations as in past 
years many among us have ventured to adopt. I love our 
Church with a deeper love than ever ; I believe in her more 
than ever, but I feel that God has chastised our proud 
spirit, and rebuked our too confident words. What a mor- 
tifying history that of our past five-and-twenty years. 
True^ as compared with other forms of corporate Christian- 
ity, our corporation has something to say for itself; but in 
view of our claims to a Catholic and Apostolic character, 
it would be petty indeed to " compare ourselves among our- 
selves," instead of looking at ourselves in the mirror of 
the Scripture narrative, and humbling ourselves before the 
examples of our fathers in the Church, — that glorious com- 
pany of missionaries and evangelists who, in the first ages, 
published the Gospel over the known world, and subdued 
Caesar's empire. 

25. TESTIMONY. 

Humbled, ashamed, borne down by the thought that I 
am the successor of such heroes in this episcopate to which 
Christ has called me, — such are my convictions. I dare 
not boast. I dare not, in a boastful spirit, ask my country- 
men to look at our claims to the Apostolic commission, 
while I do so little for Christ, and show so little of the 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 2G7 

spirit of the Apostles. But still I can " magnify mine of- 
fice," as in itself a testimony. I can bear it in full persua- 
sion that Christ has not put it here for naught ; in the pro- 
found and humble trust that in His own good time and 
way He will glorify His own institutions, and vindicate 
their importance. 

Meantime, we may content ourselves in our daily work 
on this principle, — God has set us as watchmen and as wit- 
nesses. I cannot see any further. Enough for me, — He has 
stationed me here with a standard and a trumpet. The 
Great Captain of Salvation knows " what of the night," 
and He may soon enable me to answer, " The morning Com- 
eth," " The day breaketh." But, for the present, I am con- 
tented to stand upon my watch ; to lift up the standard, 
and to blow the trumpet. It is something to be a witness ; 
it is something to be a watchman. 

26. REFLECTIONS. 

Nor has God left us without tokens that, in spite of the 
infirm and feeble means with which the grand mission of 
our American Church has been prosecuted hitherto, there 
is a Divine Breath within her which has accomplished much 
through agencies so unequal to their task. This cannot be 
denied, that though the whole history of our revival and 
progress is limited by the past half century ; though every 
influence and power in the land has been against us ; 
though popular journalism, literature, and education have 
been worked by our adversaries ; though the hordes of im- 
migration have been overwhelmingly inimical to us ; and 
though, worse than all, some of the most excellent and 
learned Christians in the land have felt it their duty to 
withstand us, vigorously and unrelentingly, yet our feeble 
testimony has already revolutionized the intelligent piety 
of the nation. Where is the Puritanism of the past ? We 



26 S APOLLOS: OK THE WAY OF GOD. 

have educated the religious intellect of America in a silent, 
progressive line toward Scriptural Catholicity. The Prayer 
Book has a place in every enlightened household. Liturgi- 
cal worship is no longer a bugbear. The Christian Year 
is dear to thousands of Nonconformists, and is deeply felt 
in our social life. The sacredness of marriage, the sinful- 
ness of divorce, the Christian nurture of the family, and 
the Christianizing of education as the rule of sanctification, 
in contrast with the spasmodic system of revivals, — these 
are another part of our testimony which is prevailing 
among reflecting believers everywhere. I say nothing of 
our work in educating the popular taste in architecture, in 
music, in decorum and order; these are minor matters. 
But while we have instinctively shunned any political part, 
I may ask, in sincerity and truth, have we not done some- 
thing for the nation in maintaining our unity throughout 
the land amid wars and commotions ? and in preaching and 
contending everywhere that the surest guarantee for na- 
tional unity must be unity in Christ ? Yes, organic unity in 
Christ ; what is any union worth without it ? This is our 
testimony; this is the truth our country most needs to 
learn. And though I must go to my grave without seeing 
this glorious result, yet, if I may fulfil m y episcopate in this 
spirit, I shall not have lived ignobly. My Master may not 
wholly reject His servant in the day of account. I have 
felt it right to speak only for myself ; but such seems to me 
the position and relation of our Church toward our Ameri- 
can brethren. We are witnesses. It is the simple fact that 
we are honored to bear a testimony before this great na- 
tion, and to stand up for grand Scriptural principles, which 
have no other representative. Must this honor continue to 
be exclusively ours ? Will no voice be lifted up in response 
to our plea for the restored organic unity of " the One fold 
under the One Shepherd ? " Will no one rise up to teach 
American Christians how to " love one another ? " 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 269 



27. SOCIAL ASPECTS. 

For this is the whole of it : " Love is the fulfilling of the 
law ; " and so long as we perpetuate divisions, which are 
classed among " the works of the devil," so long we are 
not "made perfect in love." Follow these divisions into 
any American village, or into any circle of Americans 
thrown together for purposes that should be of common 
interest, and see how bitter and discordant are the results 
of clashing sects ; how much that needs to be done for 
Christ is undone as the consequence. No doubt human in- 
firmity would excite strifes and envyings in the happiest 
circumstances. So it was in the Apostolic Church. But 
think of organizing these evils into law, giving them per- 
petuity, and filling Christian society with their terrible 
outgrowth of thorns and thistles. This was what St. Paul 
foresaw, and nipped in the germ, at Corinth. Whom Avill 
God send to weed His garden in America, and to regener- 
ate society, on the base of a restored Catholicity ? The 
bare inquiry comes to one like a breath from Paradise. To 
think of such a transformation is ennobling ; to despair of 
it makes one faint. In every village of five hundred 
souls, one decent church, the pride of every villager, the 
common centre of the village life, and of its consolations 
amid sickness and death. In his modest parsonage, the 
man of God, recognized by all as their spiritual guide, and 
realizing the life of Legh Richmond at Turvey, or of 
Keble at Hursely, or of Fletcher at Madely. The village 
school made strong for Christ and for the nation, by the 
unanimity of the population ; the villagers all walking to 
the house of God in company, at the sound of the church- 
going bell ; rejoicing together at Easter and at Christmas, 
and inspired by common relations to works of Christian 
love in Christian concord. Enlarge the picture to the scale 



270 APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 

of towns and cities, how strong the Christian body, how 
weak and powerless before its compact unity the scattered 
" armies of the aliens." Is it more than God's Spirit can 
effect ? Is it more than Jesus Christ enjoins upon His fol- 
lowers ? You say it cannot be realized. " Lord, increase 
our faith." Even allowing that it may be so, how ignoble 
to despair without an effort, how rich the reward, in one's 
own heart at least, when the whole life is warmed by the 
hope of such things ; when one's piety is animated by the 
effort to ensue it ; Avhen, at all events, one is no party to 
the sacrilege of dividing Christ. 



28. LAST WORDS. 

It sometimes strikes me as not improbable that God, 
who finds His own opportunities in the exigencies of men, 
has plans and purposes respecting America of which we lit- 
tle dream. In new countries, and in these ages, we live in 
circumstances for which no General Council has ever legis- 
lated, and in which the Divine compassion may be fairly 
invoked to revive the work of unity by extraordinary de- 
velopments of Providence. I love to think that the Mas- 
ter knows and loves, with an impartial love, all that are 
truly His. I love to reflect that He may even glorify Him- 
self, by doing, through some good Samaritan, what faith- 
less priests and Levites neglect to do. I love to leave all 
to His infinite wisdom and compassion : " Grace be with all 
those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." That 
is the spirit of the Gospel and of the Catholic Church. 

Meantime, that does not excuse me from doing my own 
duty, and bearing my own burden. I have tried, in these 
chapters, to bear my testimony to unpopular truths, and 
to place them before my countrymen and fellow-Christians. 
I have tried to speak " the truth in love." It may please 
God to give me no visible fruit of these labors. His holy 



APOLLOS: OR THE WAY OF GOD. 271 

will be done ! But I shall turn on my dying pillow, or re- 
sign my spirit to my Master in His appointed time, what- 
ever that may be, Avith something less of sorrow and dis- 
gust, as respects my unprofitable ministry, in view of the 
fact that He permitted me, at least, to speak out this testi- 
mony, and to leave all the rest to Him. I thank Him that 
He has ngt permitted me to go to my grave ignobly suc- 
cumbing to the spirit of my century, neutralized by its spe- 
cious but spurious charity, or overcome by its worldly 
compromises and faithless indifFerence. When men won- 
der at the hideous sectarianism of this age, as we now mar- 
vel at the delusive unity under which Western Europe was 
so long enslaved under the Popes, let it not be said that none 
jDleaded for peace ; that none protested against the rending 
of the seamless raiment of the Crucified. It is something 
to have spoken, even if men will not hear. It may be use- 
ful in another generation to show that even in this there 
Avere those who consented, not to the existino; state of 
things, but cried against it as "out of the deep." In that 
day, though my name be forgotten, may this voice be 
heard; and so long as Christian bishops are given to this 
land, may they never forget that it is their special office to 
" contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints." 



A PRAYER FOR CATHOLICITY. 



O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the loTiole 
family in heaven and earth is named : 

Grant unto Thy faithful people, according to the riches of Thy 
glory. 

That they may be strengthened with might, by Thy Spirit, in the 
inner man. 

That Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith. 

That they, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to com- 
prehend, with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and -depth 
and height. 

And may know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. 

That they may be filled icith all the fulness of God. 

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all 
that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. 

Unto Him be glory, in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all 
ages ; world without end. Amen. 



INDEX 



OF 



SUBJECTS AND SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

A house divided against itself: p. 5. St. 

Matt. xii. 25 ; St. Mark, iii. 24 ; St. Luke, 

xi. 17. 
Without a teaching priest: p. 6. II. Chron. 

XV. 3. 
The house of Nymphas : p. 9. Coloss. iv. 

15. 
Laodiceaus: p. 9. Rev. iii. 14. 
When, for the time, ye ought to be teach- 
ers : p. 10. Heb. v. 12. 
Aquila, the tent-maker: p. 11. Acts, xviii. 2. 
A certain Jew, named Apollos : p. 14. Acts, 

xviii. 24. 
Take heed what ye hear: p. 17. Mark, iv. 

24 ; Luke, viii. 18. 
I am of Apollos: p. 18. I. Cor. i. 12. 
Twelve others: p. 18. Acts, xix. 7. 



CHAPTER II. 

Only the baptism of John: p. 24. Acts, 

xviii. 25; xix. 4. 
So as by fire : p. 25. I, Cor. iii. 15. 
Seed for the soAver: p. 26. Isaiah, Iv. 10. 
Since ye believed : p. 28. Acts, xix. 2. 
Whether there be any H0I3' Ghost: p. 28. 

Acts, xix. 2. 
Unto what baptized : p. 29. Acts, xix. 3. 
John's bapt sm : p. 31, Acts, xix. 4. 
In the name of the Lord Jesus : p. 32. Acts, 

xix. 5. 
Customs of the churches: p. 33. I. Cor. xi. 

16; xiv. 33. 
Keep the ordinances: p. 33. I. Cor. xi. 2. 
Withdraw from every brother that walk- 

eth disorderly : p. 33. II. Thess. iii. G. 
Apostolic tradition : p. 33. II. Thess. iii. 6. 
Note that man : p. 33. II. Thess. iii. 14. 
Apostolic constitutions: p. 34. Acts, i. 8; 

xvi. 4. 



The second grace: p. 34. St. John, 1. 16; 

James, iv. 6. 
Confirmation of Joshua : p. 35. Deut. xxxiv. 

9. 
A sign to non-believers : p. 35. I. Cor. xiv. 

22. 
Sanctification : p. 36, Eph, iv. 15 ; v. 8. 
The seal: p, 36. Eph. i. 13; iv. 30; II. 

Cor. i. 22. Compared with I. John, 

ii. 20. 
The Gospel of the Holy Ghost: p, 36. St. 

John, xiv. 26; Acts, ii. 33, 
The doctrine of baptisms: p. 39. Heb. vi. 

2, compared with Acts, xix, 3-5. 
What God hath joined together: p. 40. 

St. Matt. xix. 6 ; Eph. v. 32. 



CHAPTER III. 

Obedience: p, 43, Gen. ii, 17. compared 

with St, John, vi. 53. 
Naaman: p. 43, II, Kings, v, 10. 
The nobleman's child : p. 44. St, John, iv. 

60. 
The pool of Siloam : p. 44, St, John, ix, 11. 
The foolishness of God : p, 44, I. Cor. i. 

25. 
Children yet unborn : p. 45. Ps. Ixxviii. 4, 

5, 6. 
What mean ye by this ordinance: p, 46. 

Exod, xii, 25 ; xiii, 8, 14, 
Demas : p, 46, II. Tim. iv, 10. 
Shewing forth : p. 47. I. Cor. xi. 26, 
The knuvrledge of Apollos: p. 48. Compare 

St. John Bapt'st's preoching, St. Mark, 

1.4-8; St. John,i. 0-37. 
The ignorance of Apollos : p. 48. Acts, x\iii. 

26 ; xix. 2, 3, 4, 
Admiration of men's persons: p, 53. Jude, 

16. 
More perfectly : p. 55. Acts, xviii, 26 ; Heb. 

v. 12. compared with Heb. vi. 12. 
273 



274 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



Speak the same thing: p. 57. I. Cor. i, 10; 

I. Pet. iii. 8 ; Rom. xv. 5, 6 ; Philip. 1. 27. 
Less than the least: p. 58. I. Cor. xv. 9; 

Eph. iii. 8 ; Acts, xiii. 9. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Genealogy of Joseph: p. 60. St. Matt. 1.18. 
The purification of the sanctuary: p. Gl. 

II. Chron. xxx. 19. 
Followers of the apostles: p. Gl. I. Thess. 

i.G; ii. U; II. Thess. iii. 7-9; Ph.lip. 

iii. 17; iv. 9. 
Fulfil all righteousness: p. 61. St. Matt. 

iii. 15. 
Remission of sins: p. Gl. St. Mark, i. 4. 
Justifying God : p. 61. St. Luke, vii. 29. 
Rejecting John's baptism : p. 62. St. Luke, 

vii. 29. 
Strive lawfully: p. 62. II. Tim. ii. 5. 
One of these least commandments: p. 62. St. 

Matt. V. 19. 
Two piers of apostolic law ; p. 63. St. Matt. 

xxviii. 20; St. John, xiv. 26. Compare 

Act^^, i. 3. 
Canons of the Holy Ghost : p. 63. I. Pet. i. 

12; Rev. ii.7. 
Gospel of the Holy Ghost: p. 63. Acts, 

xiii. 2. 
Things pertaining to the kingdom: p. 64. 

Acts, i. 3. 
St. Peter's exposition : p. 64. Acts, i. 15. 
Binding and loosing: p. 64. St. Matt. xvi. 

19; xviii. 18. 
The formula of the synod: p. 64. Acts, xv. 

28. 
One born out of duo time : p. 65. I. Cor. 

XV. 8. 
St. Pauls Gospel : p. 65. Rom. ii. 16 ; xvi. 25. 
Three veurs with Christ: p. 65. Galat. i. 

17,'l8. 
Caught up to the third heaven : p. 66. II. 

Cor. xii. 2-4. 
The same doctrine: p. 66. II. Peter, iii. 

15, 16. 
The apostolic system : p. 67. Jude, 17. 
Apollo^, a minister of Christ: p. 68. I. Cor. 

iii. 5 ; iv. 1. 
No confusion in the churches : p. 68. I. Cor, 

xiv. 33. Compare Gen. xi. 9. 
Circumcision of Timothy: p. 68. Acts, xvi. 3. 
Ordimition of Timothy: p. 69. I. Tim. iv. 

14; II. Tim. i. 6. 
Inferences: p. 70. I. Cor. vii. 14; Rev. i. 10. 
Organization : p. 70. Acts, ii. 40-47. 

CHAPTER V. 

Discords : p. 72. II. Pet. ii. 1-3, 17, 18, 19. 

Compare Judo, 22, 23. 
One fold : p. 81. St. John, x. 16. 
That the world may believe : p. 81. St. John, 

xvii. 21. 
The kiss of charity: p. 84. I. Pet. v. 14; 

Rom. xvi. 10; I. Cor. xvi. 20; II. Cor. 

xiii. 12; I. Thess. v. 26. 
The foot-washing: p. 84, St. John, xiii. 5; 

I. Tim. V. 10. 



First works: p. 84. Rev. ii. 5 ; iii. 3. 
From whence fallen : p. 84. Rev. ii. 5. 
The Divine standpoint: p. 85. Is. Iv. 8, 9'; 

I. Sam. XV. 22. 
Example: p. 86. Acts, ii. 42; I. Cor. xi. 2. 
Doctrine: p. 86. Eph. ii. 19-22; iv. 13. 
Entreaty : p. 86. Phil. iii. 17-19 ; I. Cor. i. 

10. 
Alarm : p. 86. I. Cor. i. 13. 
Warning: p. 86. Acts, xx. 29-31. 
Another gospel : p. 98. Gal. i. 8, 9. 
Heareth us: p. 98. I. Jolin, iv. 6. 
Unity in the eucharist. I, Cor. x. 17. 
Unity in baptism. I. Cor. xii. 13. 



HAPTER VI. 

Doubting faith : p. 102. St. John, xx. 27. 
Dishonoring the Bride : p. 104. St. John, 

iii. 29. 
Discarded texts : p. 104. St. John, xii. 48. 
Mysterious formulas : p. 106. EccKs. xii.ll. 
Strong meat: p. 106. Sr. Matt. xiii. 11; St. 

Mark, iv. 11 ; St. Luke, viii. 10. 
Dark sayings: p. 107. II. Peter, iii. 16. 
Thou art Peter: p. 108. St. Matt. xvi. 18. 
Tell it unto the diurch : p. 108. St. Matt. 

xviii. 17. 
They are remitted: p. 108. St. John, xx. 

23. 
All power is given unto me: p. 108. St. 

Matt, xxv.ii. 18. 
Strengthen thv brethren : p. 111. St. Luke, 

xxii. 32; I. IVtcr, v. 10. 
Get thee behind me : p. 111. St. Matt. xvi. 

23. 
The Rock: p. 111. St. Matt. xvi. 18; I.Peter, 

ii.5. 
To become as a heathen : p. 111. St. Matt. 

xviii. 17. 
As the Fatlier hath sent me: p. 112. St. 

John, XX. 21. 
A risen founder: j). 112. Acts. i. 8. 
The kingdom within you: p. 113. St. Luke, 

xvii. 21. 
Who can f .rgivesins: p. 113. St. Mark, ii.7. 
One is vour Master: p. 113. St. Matt, xxiii. 

8-io. 

Not sent to baptize: p. 114. Acts, xxvi. 

16-18. 
Circumcision availeth nothing: p. 114. Acts, 

XV. 1-24; Galat. v 6; vi. 15. 
Untransmissible priesthood: p. 114. Heb. 

vii. 24, margin. 
Forbid him not : p. 114. St. Mark, ix. 39. 
Where two or three : p. 114. St. Matt. viii. 

20. 
Profaning the Sabbath: p. 115. St. Matt. 

xii. 5. 
Visible church : p. 115. Acts, ii. 46, 47. 
Remission by human agency: p. 116. II. 

Sam. xii. 13; St. Mark, i. 4; Acts, ii. 

38; xxii. 16. 
Obev those over you: p. 116. Heb. xiii. 17. 
He that is baptized : p. 116. St. Mark, xvi. 

16. 
The roval priesthood : p. 116. Exod. xix. 6 ; 

I. Pet. ii. 5-9. 



INDEX OP SUBJECTS AND SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



275 



Follow us apostles : p. IIG. II. Thess. ill. 

m 7-9. 
Lydiarp. 117. Acts, xvi. 14. 
Primary and secondary: p. 118. St. Matt. 

V. 19. 
Sabbath made for man : p. 120. St. Mark, 

ii. 27. 
Uzziah : p. 121. II. Chron. xxvi. 18. 
Korah: p. 121. Numb. xvi. 6; Jude, 11. 
Not of my own mind; p. 122. Numb. xvi. 

28. 
My lord Moses, forbid them : p. 122. Numb. 

xi. 28. 
The priest's lips: p. 122. Malachi, ii. 7. 
Subject to the prophets : p. 122. I. Cor. xiv. 

32. 
Bacon's Uvo texts : p. 123. St. Mark, ix. 40 ; 

St. Mark, xii. 30. 
Every kingdom divided : p. 123. St. Matt. 

xii. 25. 
Circumcision of the heart: p. 124. Rom. ii. 

29. 
All the congregation holy : p. 124. Numb. 

xvi. 3. 
The Son of Man : p. 125. St. John, v. 27. 
Wash away thy sins : p. 125. Acts, xxii. 16. 
Regeneration : p. 126. Tit. iii. 5. 
Begotten from above : p. 127. St. John, iii. 

7, marg. 
Remission under the law : p. 127. St. Luke, 

vii. 29. 
Christ's hand to heal : p. 128. Acts, iv. 30. 
Word of reconciliation : p. 128. II. Cor. v. 

19. 
Faith only saves : p. 128. St. Matt. ix. 22 ; 

St. Mark, v. 34. 
Marginal reading : p. 130. Rom. xv. 16. 
Isaiah's promise : p. 130. Is. Ixi. ; Ixvi. 

21. 
Malachi's promise : p. 130. Mai. i. 11. 
Ezekiel : p. 132. Ezek. xliv. 15. 
St. Paul's sacrifices: p. 132. Acts, xxi. 

24-26. 
Salvation is of the Jews: p. 135. St. John, 

iv. 22. 
The instruction of meekness :" p. 136. II. 

Tim. ii. 25. 



CHAPTER VII. 

He that receiveth you : p. 138. St. Matt. x. 

46. 
Receive them not : p. 138. II. John, 10. 
Lack of doctrine : p. 139. I. Tim. vi. 3, 4. 
Running without mission. Jer. xxiii. 21. 
St. Peter's warning : p. 141. II. Pet. ii. 1-3. 
St. Paul's prophecy: p. 141. II. Tim. iv.3. 
St. Jude's description : p. 141. Jude, 16. 
Without a teaching priest: p. 144. II. 

Chron. xv. 3. 
Useful preaching without mission. Jer. 

xxiii. 22; Phil. i. 18. 
Least in the kingdom : p. 147. St. Matt. v. 

19. 
Work burned : p. 147. I. Cor. iii. 15. 
Not crowned : p. 147. II. Tim. ii. 5. 
I never knew you : p. 148. St. Matt. vii. 23. 
Balaam; p. 148. Numb, xxiii. 4. 



Caiaphas : p. 148. St. John, xi. 51. 
Judas: p. 148. St. Mark, x. 4. 
Moses' seat: p. 149. St. Matt, xxiii. 2. 
Deceivers self-deceived: p. 149. II. Tim. 

iii. 13. 
Wolves : p. 150. St. Matt. vii. 15 ; Acts, xx. 

. 29. 
Scattering the sheep : St. John, x. 12. 
Satan as an angel of light: p. 150. II. Cor. 

xi. 14, 15. 
The negative safeguard: p. 151. II. Johu 

11. 
Man-made teachers : p. 152. II. Tim. iv. 3. 
Jannes and Jambres ; p. 152. II. Tim. iii. 8. 
Gainsayers; p. 153. Tit. i. 9. 
Pernicious ways ; p. 153. II. Pet. ii. 2. 
Despisers of government : p. 153. II. Pet. 

ii.lO. 
Steadfastness ; p. 154. II. Pet. iii. 17 ; Col. 

ii. 5. 
Separatists of two sorts : p. 154. Jude, 22, 

23. 
Many antichrists: p. 155. I. John, ii. 18; 

iv. 2. 
Diotrephes: p. 156. III. John, 9. 
Demetrius: p. 156. III. John, 12. 
Final appeal: p. 157. Phil. iii. 15-19. 
The Lord rebuke thee: p. 158. St. Jude, 9, 
Your perfection : p. 158. II. Cor. xili. 9. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Making God a liar : p. 160. I. John, v. 10. 
Acquaintance with God : p. 160. Job, xxii. 

21. 
No proud looks : p. IGl. Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2. 
Zenas, the lawyer : p. 161. Tit. iii. 13. 
A man that is a sectary: p. 162. Tit. iii. 10. 
Serving their own belly : p. 162. Rom. xvi, 

18. 
First and second admonitions : p. 162. Tit. 

iii. 10. 
Good words and fair speeches : p. 162. Rom. 

xvi. 18. 
Rebuke them sharply : p. 163. Tit. i. 13. 
The Faith : p. 163. Jude, 3. 
Mould of doctrine: p. 164. Rom. vi. 17. 
St. Peter and Rome: p. 164. Acts, ii. 10; 

Rom.xi. 20. - 
Creed-germs : p. 165. St. Mark, viii. 29 ; St. 

Matt, xxviii. 19. 
Remember the words : p. 166. Jude, 17. 
The creed in essence : p. 166. St. Mark, 

viii. 29. 
Philip and the Ethiopian: p. 167. Acts, 

viii. 27. 
Preaching Jesus : p. 168. Acts, viii. 35. 
One God : p. 169. I. Cor. vM. 6; Heb. xi.3. 
One Lord: p. 169. St. Mark, viii. 23; St. 

John, i. 14. 
Made fle^h : p. 169. St. John, i. 14. 
Crucified, dead and buried: p. 169. Acts, 

ii. 23. 
Descended into hell: p. 169. St. Luke, 

xxiii. 43; Acts, ii. 31. 
Ascended into heaven: p. 169. Eph.iv.lO; 

Acts, vii. 55. 
Cometh to judge : p. 169. II. Tim. iv. 1. 



276 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



The Holy Ghost : p. 169. II. Cor. iii. 17 ; 
Rom. viii. 2. 

The church: p. 169. St. Matt. xvi. 18; II. 
Cor. xiii. 14. 

Forgiveness of sins: p. 169. Acts, il. 38. 

Resurrection : p. 169. Acts, xxiv. 15. 

Everlasting life : p. 169. Gal. vi. 8. 

Form of sound words: p. 171. II. Tim. i. 
13. 

Catechising : p. 171. St. Luke, i. 4. 

Proportion : p. 171. Rom. xii. 6. 

The Word cf God : p. 172. Acts, xiii. 7. 

Right ways : p. 172. Acts, xiii. 10. 

Examine: p. 173. II. Cor. xiii. 5. 

Strive : p. 173. Phil. i. 27. 

Standfast: Phil. i. 27. 

Continue : p. 173. Coloss. i. 23. 

Love in faith : p. 173. Tit. iii. 15, 

Common faith : p. 173. Tit. 1. 4. 

Soundness: p. 173. Tit. i. 13; ii. 2. 

Keep: p. 173. IL Tim. i.l4. 

Commit : p. 173. II. Tim. ii. 2. 

Shall he find faith : p. 173. St. Luke, xviii. 8. 

Good fight : p. 174. I. Tim. vi. 12. 

Must be heresies : p. 174. I. Cor. xi. 19. 

Mark them: p. 175. Rom. xvi. 17. 

Avoid them: p. 175. Rom. xvi. 17. 
Withdraw thyself: p. 175. I. Tim. vi. 5. 
Shun : p. 175. II. Tim. ii. 16. 
The truth— the faith : p. 175. IL Tim. ii. 17. 
War a good warfare: p. 175. I, Tim. i. 18. 
Made sliipwreck : p. 175. I. Tim. i. 19. 
Pure conscience : p. 175. I. Tim, iii. 9. 
Doctrines of devils: p. 176. I. Tim. iv. 1. 
Voluntary humility: p. 177. Coloss. ii. 18. 
Departing from the faith : p. 177. I. Tim. 

iv.l. 
No lie of the truth : p. 177. I. John, ii. 21. 
Faith is righteousness : p. 177. Gen. xv. 6. 
The friend of God: p. 178. James, ii. 23. 
A son of thunder: p. 178. St. Mark, iii. 17. 
Truth is eternal life : p. 178. I. John, v. 20. 
A liar: p. 178. I. Johp, ii. 22. 
Pillar and ground: p. 179. I, Tim. iii. 15. 
Calling and election : p. 180. IL Pet. i. 10. 
Hid est thyself: p. 181. Is. xlv. 15. 
Prove all things: p. 182. I. Thess. v. 21. 
Beroans : p. 182. Acts, xvii. 11. 
As ye have been taught: p. 183. Eph.iv. 21. 
The theorem demonstrated: p. 183. St. 
John, iv. 42 ; St. Luke, i. 4. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Unwritten constitutions : p. 185. IL Pet. 

iii. 2. 
Internal reforms : p. 185. Rev. ii. 4, 5. 
Come out: p. 185. Rev. xviii. 4. 
Pretended apostles: p. 186. Rev. ii. 2. 
The concision : p. 187. Phil. iii. 2. 
Matthias' bishopric : p. 189. Acts, i. 20. 
Fusion: p. 189. Gal. ii. 9. 
Hinges of unity: p. 189. I. John, i. 3. 
The formula: p. 190. I. Cor. iv. 6. 
Ye and we: p. 191. Acts, vi. 3. 
Named them apostles: i^. 191. St. Luke, vi. 

13. 



The case of Saul and Barnabas : p. 191. Acts, 

xiii. 2. » 

Apostles by men : p. 192. Gal. i. 1. 
Signs of an apostle: p. 192. II. Cor. xii. 12. 
The historical sign : p. 193. Rev. ii. 2. 
Witnesses of the resurrection: p. 193. Acts, 

1.8. 
Secondary apostles : p. 194. II. Cor. viii. 23. 
The episcopal system : p. 194. Tit. i. 5. 
Bishops : p. 196. Rev. i. 20. 
Three orders: p. 197. ILTim.i.6; Tit.i.5. 
Presbj^ters : p. 197. Acts, xx. 17 ; vi. 6. 
Also, an elder: p. 198. L Pet. v. 1 ; I. Tim. 

V. 1-19. 
Extremes meet : p. 199. ude, 16; IL Pet, 

ii. 19. 
Transmission : p. 199. II. Tim. i. 6 ; ii. 2 ; 

I. Tim. V. 22. 
Joints and bands : p. 200. Col. ii. 19. 
Fitly framed: p. 200. Eph. ii. 21. 
Credentials: p. 201. Heb.v.4; Il.Pet.ii. 1. 
What criterion : p. 202. II. John, 10, 11. 
Woman's call : p. 204. I. Tim. ii. 12. 
The succession : p. 204. Acts, i. 26. 
Sardis and England: p. 205. Rev. iii. 2. 



CHAPTER X. 

Breaking bread : p. 206. Acts, ii. 42. 
Weekly eucharist : p. 207. Acts, xx. 7. 
The sermon : p. 208. Jer. xxiii. 28. 
The synaxis : p. 211. I. Cor. xiv. 23. 
One bread : p. 211. I. Cor. x. 17. 
Mystery of marriage : p. 212. Eph. v. 32. 
One with another : p. 212. I. John, i. 7. 
The agapse : p. 213. Jude, 12. 
Virtue goes out from him : p. 214. St. Mark, 

V. 30. 
Ministering to the Lord: p. 215. Acts, 

xiii. 2. 
Differences of administration : p. 217. I. 

Cor. xii. 5. 
St. Paul's Gospel : p. 218. Gal. xi. 12. 
Easter at Corinth : p. 220. I. Cor. v. 7. 
The taxis : p. 220. I. Cor. xiv. 40. 
The Lord's Day and Supper : p. 220. Acts, 

XX. 7. 
The Lord's house: p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 22, 
Discerning the body : p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 29. 
The responsive Amen : p. 221. I. Cor. xiv. 

16; Re^v.v.14; xix. 4. 
The communication : p. 221. I. Cor. x. 16. 
Eatingjudgment: p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 29. 
Diseases and death: p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 30. 
Sacrificial aspects: p. 221. Rom. xv. 16. 
Table and altar: p. 221. I. Cor. x. 18-21; 

Heb. xiii. 10-15. 
Self-examination : p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 28. 
Unworthy communication: p. 221. I. Cor. 

xi.27. 
Shewing ibrth : p. 221. I. Cor. xi. 26. 
An altar: p. 222. Heb. xiii. 10. 
Women communicate: p. 222. Acts, ii. 41, 

42. 
The feast part of the sacrifice : p. 222. I. 

Cor. xi. 26. 
Not a spectacle : p. 222. I. Cor. xi. 33. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



277 



Ps. Ixxxiii. 12. 

p. 227. I. Sam. ii. 

Acts, ii. 4. 



The chalice: p. 222. I. Cor. xi. 28. 
The central idea : p. 222. Acts, xx. 7. 
The known tongue : p. 223. I. Cor. xiv. 14. 
Often : p. 223. 1. Cor. xi. 26. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Teach ns to pray: p. 225. St. Luke, xi. 1. 
Dwellings of Jacob : p. 226. Ps. Ixxxvii. 2. 
Schools of the prophets: p. 226, I. Sam. 

x. 5-10. 
Houses of God : p. 227. 
Hannah's Magnificat 

1-10. 
Pentecostal hymns : p. 228. 
Catechised: p. 228. St. Luke, i. 4. 
He gaith : p. 229. Eph. v. 14. 
Antiphonal singing: p. 229, Eph. v. 19. 
Psalms, hymns, songs : p. 229. Eph. v. 19. 
Eye hath not seen : p. 230. I. Cor. ii. 9. 
Individualism in worship: p. 230. I. Cor. 

xiv. 26. 
A liturge: p. 231. Eom. xv. 16. 
The oratory : p. 231. Acts, iii. 1 ; xvi. 13. 
The hours : p. 231. Acts, iii. 1 ; x. 9, 30. 
Jewish days and ordinances- p. 232. Gal. 

iv. 10; Coloss. ii. 16. 
In the temple: p. 233. St. Luke, xxiv. 53. 
One accord : p. 233. Acts, i. 14 ; ii. 1, 46. 
Extemporaneous prayer: p. 233. Acts, i. 24. 
Solomon's porch : p. 234. St. John, x. 23. 
Apostolic supplication : p. 234. Acts, iv. 24. 
The hand of Christ : p. 235. Acts, iv. 30. 
Lections : p. 236. Col. iv. 16. 
Pentecost: p. 237. Acts, xviii. 21; xx. 

16. 
Easter : p. 238. I. Cor. v. 7. 
Christmas : p. 238. St. John, i. 14 ; vii. 37-42 ; 

Is. ix. 3. 
Abraham's passover : p. 238. Heb. xi. 17-19. 
The atonement: p. 238. Heb. xi. 28. 
Take no thought: p. 239. St.Mark,xiii.ll. 
Forgive us our trespasses : p. 239. St. Matt. 

vi. 14. 
The life of all worship: p. 240. St. Mark, 

xi. 25. 
The presence of Christ: p. 241. St. John, 

XX. 19. 
Unseen but believed: p. 241. St. John, 

XX. 29. 
Bethel : p. 241. Gen. xii. 8 ; xxviii. 19. 



Peniel: p. 242. Gen. xxxii. 30. 

Made known by the church : p. 242. Eph. 

iii. 10. 
Lydia : p. 242. Acts, xvi. 14. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Ordinances of the apostles: p. 243. Aots, 

xvi. 4 ; I. Cor. xi. 2. 
To be maintained : p. 243. Rom. xvi. 17, 

18 ; I. Cor. xi. 16, 17. 
Innovations unlawful : p. 244. I. Cor. xiv. 

37. 
Real unity: p. 246. St. John, xvii. 21. 
Whereto w^e have attained : p. 248. PhiL 

iii. 16. 
Instructions of meekness: p. 249. II. Tim. 

ii. 25. 
Till we all come: p. 250. Eph. iv. 13. 
Sect names: p. 251. I. Cor. i. 15. 
Discipline : p. 251. II. Cor, x. 6. 
The tithe : p, 252. I. Cor. xvi. 2. 
Vocation : p. 252. Acts, xvi. 3. 
Deaconesses: p. 252. Tit. ii. 3. 
Unmarried missioners : p. 252. II. Tim.ii. 

4; I. Cor. vii. 32. 
Catechetical system: p. 252. Acts, i. 1; 

xviii. 26. 
Cathedral system : p. 252. Acts, xx. 18. 
Strong delusions : p. 254. II. Thess. ii. 11. 
Simon Magus: p. 255. II. Pet. ii. 3. 
Elymas : p. 255. Acts, xiii. 9, 10. 
Truth : p. 259. St. John, xvi. 13. 
Mission : p. 259. St. John, xv. 16. 
Perpetuity : p. 259. St. John, xiv. 16. 
Antiquity of truth : p. 260. Jer. vi. 16 ; Col. 

ii. 6, 7, 8. 
First works : p. 263. Rev. ii, 5, 
Judges as at the beginning : p, 263. Is. i. 26. 
That the world may believe: p. 263. St. 

John, xvii. 21. 
The set time: p. 264, Ps. cii. 13, 14. 
Signs of the times: p. 266, St. Matt. xvi. 3. 
Comparisons: p. 266. II. Cor. x. 12. 
The office of a witness: p. 267. Rev. ii. 13. 
One fold, one Shepherd : p. 268. St. John, 

X. 16. 
Divisions : p. 269. Prov. vi. 19. 
Increase our faith: p. 270. St. Luke, 

xvii. 5. 



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